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Words-and-Pictures:
Toji
(as seen on October 9th, 2001,
on the Old Tokaido section of the Aki
Meguri)
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| Note:
Toji
is one of the most outstanding temples of Kyoto, a city rife with
outstanding temples, located at the south end of the
Old Tokaido Highway. You can read about my visit to Toji in my
Logbook. You may also choose to start reading about
my Tokaido
journey at the beginning, or start at the top of my Aki
Meguri pages. |
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Delightful: the
first thing I saw as I walked onto the grounds was this map of
Shikoku with the 88 temples marked. It's a reminder that
this temple was Kobo Daishi's base in the capital. (He was
the founder of the pilgrimage on Shikoku; more on that next
week.) |
| This sign has always cracked me up.
They're posted all over the grounds to guide the visitor through
the tour, but the wording just seems so--esoteric. |
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This is one end of the
Kondo, the main
hall. You can get a sense of the scale of this place when
you look closely and realize those are people in front of
the building. |
| Another view of the Kondo, from the
front. I said your prayers inside, in front of the Trinity
of Buddhas. |
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The Kodo is a lecture hall.
Both it and the Kondo are filled with colossal figures of the
Buddhas and other "Vajraistic" (as the sign says)
figures. |
| The front doors of the
Kodo.
The 21 figures inside are said to be arranged in the shape of
three mandalas, a figure of extreme importance in both Shingon
and Tendai Buddhism, the two esoteric sects in Japan. |
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| Also on the grounds are a house allegedly lived in by
Kobo Daishi--whom you'll hear a lot about on Shikoku--and the Jiki-do,
rebuilt in 1930. There's also a fine museum with examples of old
mandalas, so central to Shingon practice. |
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HISTORY
