(Note: Some photos for this segment are in the next one.)
Kyoto has more than 2000 temples, and temples have festivals. So it’s possible to go to a temple festival almost any day of the week, though, after you’ve been to a few, you may reasonably ask, “What for?” We’ve been to a few. Here’s a description of one we missed: “During this send-off ceremony for old needles, professional seamstresses and housewives stick their used needles in a slab of konnyaku, a rubbery food made from the starch of a plant root; prayers are then said over them.” I’m not kidding.
However: Spring weather arrived in Kyoto on Friday, and we wanted an outing. The Kyoto Visitors Guide informed us that we could witness “a spectacular competition” beginning at noon at Daigo-ji (Temple). So off we set. The temple sits low in the eastern hills in a neighborhood we hadn’t visited before. As we exited the subway station, men thrust flyers at us advertising bus rides to the temple, but we chose to walk. A block or two before the temple grounds, barriers closed the streets to vehicular traffic, and dozens of police officers directed pedestrian hordes. This was obviously a big deal!
Beginning just inside the main temple entrance, booths selling fast food, pickles or sweets packaged to go, and cheap toys lined both sides of the path. From further uphill, we heard chanting of deep voices and saw huge billows of smoke. As we moved in that direction, food booths gave way to amulet stalls, and incense burned our noses. Turning a corner, we found ourselves in a large crowded courtyard that had, at its center, a raised platform resembling a boxing ring. Many men filled it: Buddhist monks in purple, gold or white robes were conducting a raffle to determine the order in which the other men, the contestants, would perform a weight-lifting feat.
What weight-lifting feat? What were they to do? Well….The contestants were to raise and hold off the platform 150 kilograms of pounded glutinous rice called mochi. Mochi is used to make pastries, often filled with sweet bean paste, delicious to some, sickening to others. But as heft in a weight-lifting competition? Pul-ease!
150 kilograms is impressive weight (330 lbs.), and we were anxious to see how lifting would be done and how long someone could really hold this much weight off the floor. But just before the first contestant approached, media were invited onto the platform. Cameramen (yes, men) and their assistants swarmed, and any notion of a mere attendee seeing anything disappeared. We circled the area, we moved forward, we moved backward, but all we could see were cameras and the butt of the judge who was making sure the pallet of mochi was off the floor. My best photos are above. In one, you can probably see the contestant who held the weight for 5 minutes, 23 seconds (the winning time was more than 12 minutes); the other shows the demonstration mochi cakes provided by corporate sponsors and the attitudes of some attendees. One of the demonstration cakes was set aside for people to touch, then touch themselves on the shoulder for good luck.
When we gave up trying to see anything at the mochi-lifting competition, we moved on to the bonfire. Here, there was primitive sounding music. (See the photo for the instruments.) People brought the amulets they had purchased (still wrapped in the bags provided by the temple so that the monks knew the temple had made money) to be blessed by the smoke of the fire. They handed their packages to the monks who held them over the fire briefly before returning them. This was, at least, wonderful pageantry—much better viewing than the mochi competition.
There was one more great treat for us here. Daigo-ji’s pagoda is the oldest building in Kyoto, and it is stunning. (See photo.) I often grumble about how all temples look pretty much alike, and “you’ve seen one temple, you’ve seen them all,” but this building truly is special. That’s why I’ll keep going to temple festivals.
However: Spring weather arrived in Kyoto on Friday, and we wanted an outing. The Kyoto Visitors Guide informed us that we could witness “a spectacular competition” beginning at noon at Daigo-ji (Temple). So off we set. The temple sits low in the eastern hills in a neighborhood we hadn’t visited before. As we exited the subway station, men thrust flyers at us advertising bus rides to the temple, but we chose to walk. A block or two before the temple grounds, barriers closed the streets to vehicular traffic, and dozens of police officers directed pedestrian hordes. This was obviously a big deal!
Beginning just inside the main temple entrance, booths selling fast food, pickles or sweets packaged to go, and cheap toys lined both sides of the path. From further uphill, we heard chanting of deep voices and saw huge billows of smoke. As we moved in that direction, food booths gave way to amulet stalls, and incense burned our noses. Turning a corner, we found ourselves in a large crowded courtyard that had, at its center, a raised platform resembling a boxing ring. Many men filled it: Buddhist monks in purple, gold or white robes were conducting a raffle to determine the order in which the other men, the contestants, would perform a weight-lifting feat.
What weight-lifting feat? What were they to do? Well….The contestants were to raise and hold off the platform 150 kilograms of pounded glutinous rice called mochi. Mochi is used to make pastries, often filled with sweet bean paste, delicious to some, sickening to others. But as heft in a weight-lifting competition? Pul-ease!
150 kilograms is impressive weight (330 lbs.), and we were anxious to see how lifting would be done and how long someone could really hold this much weight off the floor. But just before the first contestant approached, media were invited onto the platform. Cameramen (yes, men) and their assistants swarmed, and any notion of a mere attendee seeing anything disappeared. We circled the area, we moved forward, we moved backward, but all we could see were cameras and the butt of the judge who was making sure the pallet of mochi was off the floor. My best photos are above. In one, you can probably see the contestant who held the weight for 5 minutes, 23 seconds (the winning time was more than 12 minutes); the other shows the demonstration mochi cakes provided by corporate sponsors and the attitudes of some attendees. One of the demonstration cakes was set aside for people to touch, then touch themselves on the shoulder for good luck.
When we gave up trying to see anything at the mochi-lifting competition, we moved on to the bonfire. Here, there was primitive sounding music. (See the photo for the instruments.) People brought the amulets they had purchased (still wrapped in the bags provided by the temple so that the monks knew the temple had made money) to be blessed by the smoke of the fire. They handed their packages to the monks who held them over the fire briefly before returning them. This was, at least, wonderful pageantry—much better viewing than the mochi competition.
There was one more great treat for us here. Daigo-ji’s pagoda is the oldest building in Kyoto, and it is stunning. (See photo.) I often grumble about how all temples look pretty much alike, and “you’ve seen one temple, you’ve seen them all,” but this building truly is special. That’s why I’ll keep going to temple festivals.
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