Cultural Trip to Kyoto

In May this year I was fortunate to be able to return to Kyoto with a party of students. The students were studying on a cultural studies project named ‘Kyoto Reportage’ and which involved interviewing people to discover personal stories. Later these stories could be assembled to build a joint identity of Kyoto.

We spent 6 days in Kyoto and during this time we visited the wonderful Kyoto Saga University of Arts and familiar places such as Kyomizu-dera, Sangjusangen-do, Gion and Arashyama but fortunately our visit coincided with a local festival – Aoi Matsuri. (Ctd below)

This festival takes the form of a long parade of around 500 people, horses and bullocks pulling decorated carts. The participants wore traditional costumes and the parade moved slowly from the Old Imperial Palace to the Shimogamo Jinja (Shrine) where there was a break. During this break time there were demonstrations of galloping horses, various rituals and stalls had been set up serving freshly cooked food, all amongst the trees. After lunch the parade started moving again and walked slowly in the rain to the Kamigamo Jinja (Shrine). (Ctd below)

The festival has been held since the 6^th Century and the key parts of the festival are the Aoi leaves (‘Hollyhock’ in English), which decorate the dresses, the carriages, the heads and other clothes of the participants. It is a solemn and graceful festival and is truly fascinating. Unbelievably some people have written about the festival, describing it as boring and uneventful, which to me betrays the preconceptions many people have towards festivals. Many people in today’s society expect noise, loud music, rushing about and chaos when they attend festivals.

Once again I had the good fortune to be able to spend some time in this city and I was so pleased to be able to witness the Aoi Matsuri festival, one of the three big festivals of the city (Aoi, Gion, Jidai).

The students had a wonderful time and made some very enlightening interviews, taking photographs of their subjects along with sound recordings in many cases. They were later able to construct some very interesting presentations that attempted to construct an identity of their interviewees (or their personal interpretation of the subject’s identity).

Saturday 18th May 2013 - 'Drawn from experience'

I was lucky enough to be invited to Saga University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan to give a lecture and lead a workshop on drawing.
The students were very hardworking and open minded, they were willing to try new things and their enthusiasm led to some interesting results in a short timeframe.

Kyoto is a wonderful city and on this, my 3rd trip, I managed to find time to visit some of my favorite places such as the Sanjusangen-do temple but I also managed to find some new places such as the lovely 'e-fish' cafe where I had lunch on Friday, the day before the workshop. I hope it is not too long before I return.

More information

Sanjusangendo is a temple in eastern Kyoto famous for its 1001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. It is believed that Kannon will assist humans in distress and lead them to enlightenment. 


The temple was founded in 1164 and rebuilt a century later after the original structure had been destroyed by fire in 1249. The rebuilding was completed in 1266.The temple hall at 120 meters is Japan's longest wooden structure. The name Sanjusangendo means literally "33 intervals" and is derived from the number of intervals between the building's support columns, which is a traditional method of measuring the size of a building.


Kannon is said to be able to assume any of thirty-three forms to be of aid, hence the building symbolically has thirty-three bays and is called the thirty-three ["sanju-san"] bay ["gen"] hall ["do"].


The large, wooden statue of Kannon sits in the center of the main hall (whose head was rescued from the fire along with 156 of the standing images) and is flanked on each side by 500 statues of human sized 1000-armed Kannon standing in ten rows. The sight of all these figures when entering the temple is unforgettable.


It is said that if you are patient and watch carefully, one statue will momentarily assume the form of a loved one.


From the Edo period onwards, an archery contest has been held on the west veranda of this temple.It has been said that a duel between the famous warrior Miyamoto Musashi and Yoshioka Denshichirō, leader of the Yoshioka-ryū was fought just outside Sanjūsangen-dō in 1604. This event has been imortalised in the film ‘Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple’, 1967 Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki.

Sanjusangen-do - more images

It is a pleasure simply to stroll around the grounds of this amazing temple in Kyoto.

Sanjusangen-do

Sanjusangen-do in Kyoto. December 2011, my first visit to the temple.

Welcome to my blog! I lost my previous blog as I needed to delete my gmail account and I lost my blog at the same time. My previous blog was written under my name - Patrick S. Ford.

I have entitled my new blog '33 Temple' because after visiting Kyoto in Japan 3 times within 3 years, this temple has become rather special for me. It is not the most beautiful temple in Kyoto but for me it is the most spiritual. I have had many conversations with the spirits there.
I dedicate this blog to my new friends who live in Sanjusangen-do in Kyoto!