Kyoto’s Tofukuji Temple in autumn

22 November 2016

Kyoto’s Tofukuji Temple is large Zen temple that displays some of Kyoto's most spectacular autumn foliage and the colours are usually best in the second half of November. Tofukuji Temple is located south of Kyoto and near to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. It made sense to visit this temple when we were travelling from Nara to the APA Hotel Kyoto Gion Excellent, our next hotel in Kyoto. As usual ,we did luggage forwarding one day earlier using the Takuhaibin delivery services so have our hands free for sightseeing.

The temple opened at 8.30 AM and we planned to arrive immediately after the opening time, hoping that the crowd would be lesser earlier in the day. From Nara, we took the JR Rapid train to JR Tofukuji Station. It took 45 mins of travel time. Tofukuji is a ten minute walk from Tofukuji Station. There were already streams of visitors making their way from the train station to the temple, including many Japanese visitors. There were traffic wardens stationed at key road junctions to ensure safety, direct traffic and also to usher the stream of people walking to the temple.

We paid the entrance fee and entered the temple. The view of and from the bridge is spectacular in autumn.

View of the Tsutenkyo Bridge during autumn.

We had to follow a roped pathway that was quite wide and there was already hordes of photographers taking pictures.

 

Special effect shots of “falling” leaves.

Kaisando Hall serves as the mausoleum of the temple's first head priest.

Moss and pond garden.

The Kaisando and its gardens were last reconstructed during the Edo Period (1603-1867).

We got to see more of the impressive autumn foliage after exiting the Kaisando.

Looking at the autumn leaves at Tofukuji Temple, we can understand why this place was so crowded. Even the locals have travelled from all over Japan to Kyoto and to this temple to appreciate the beauty of nature. Crowd control was good and visitors are confined to the roped pathways so all can take good photos of the autumn foliage and not get in each other’s way.

Fallen leaves a plenty.

I think we visited at the right time. There were still plenty of colours – red, orange, yellow and green on the trees.

We met up with some friends who were also touring Japan.  We had planned to spend this day exploring Kyoto together.

A nice tea break of Japanese dessert and coffee after enjoying the autumn leaves.

A picture in front of a tree with a beautiful mixture of colours.

We spent about 2.5 hours in Tofukuji Temple. Although it was not in my original plan, we decided to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine next since it was near to Tofukuji Temple and we had some unfinished business there. In our last visit to Fushimi Inari Shrine in June earlier in the year, we did not managed to hike all the way to the summit of Mount Inari. We aimed to complete the journey this time.

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Visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine and hike all the way to the summit of Mount Inari

22 November 2016

The Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of Kyoto’s popular attraction and is located within the vicinity of the Tofuku-ji Temple. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates that lined the hiking trail behind the main buildings leading up to the summit of Mount Inari. We had previously visited Fushimi Inari Shrine in June 2016 (see post)  but did not hike all the way to the top. This time we aimed to hike to the top of Mount Inari.

After admiring the autumn leaves and gardens of the Tofuku-ji Temple, we took a walk southwards to Fushimi Inari Shrine.  As we approached the shrine, the area became more touristy with more souvenir, craft and food stores lining the streets.

Beautiful handkerchief on sale in a store near Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Just outside the shrine, there a street with many food vendors hawking local delights. The walk from Tofuku-ji to Fushimi Inari Shrine had taken us about 20 minutes. After sampling some beef skewers and sweets, we went into the shrine.

Rows of street food vendors near Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Although it is autumn, the leaves of the trees at the shrine was still mostly green. Anyway, this shrine is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates that lined the hiking trail behind the main buildings leading up to the summit of Mount Inari and not for the autumn leaves.

A pair of fierce looking foxes or kitsune guarding a torii gate. 

 

Inari is the Shinto god of rice or grain. In Japanese culture, rice or grain translates to wealth and hence Inari can be considered as a Shinto god of wealth. The foxes were supposed to be Inari’s messengers. Hence there were many fox statues across the shrine grounds.

I managed to get a better picture of the kitsune holding a scroll in its mouth compared to my previous visit.

As this was our second visit to this place, we headed straight for the trail leading up Mount Inari, about 233 m high.

We reached the place where we had turned back on our previous visit. The place looked different in the light of the mid day sun.  This was not even the mid-point of the trail.

Along the way to the summit of Mount Inari.

There was a rest area at the Yotsutsuji intersection, roughly half way up the mountain. There were a few paths leading out from here. We took a flight of steps up a path but it led to an area with many tomb stones and we had to U-turn and made our way back down.

View of Kyoto city at the Yotsutsuji intersection.

 

This path led to a dead end. 

Quiet area with tombstones, mini torii gates and foxes. Some nice autumn leaves here.

Two other paths at the Yotsutsuji intersection are the starting point of a circular route to the summit.

The trail snaking its way up Mount Inari.

Up and up till we reached the summit.

After some sweat, we made it to the summit. The hike was not strenuous and took us about one hour to walk up. My only regret was that I was not in the right attire for hiking since the decision to hike up Mount Inari was an impromptu one. There was no views from the summit.

Sign confirming that we had made it to the summit at 233 m above sea level.

A prayer area on a circular mound on the summit.

Walking around the prayer area, we saw many little torii gates.

Row of torii gates without the crowd, on our way down.The individual torii were donated by individuals and companies hoping to remain wealthy and get ahead in business. The gates were painted bright vermilion colour with black kanji lettering on each torii indicating the name of the donating individual or company.

 

We took a different path down Mount Inari and arrived back at the main hall of the Fushimi Inari Shrine at about 2 PM. Overall the hike up to the summit and back down took about 2 hours.

We took a train from the Fushimi Inari Station to the Gion Shijo Station using the private rail operated by Keihan Electric Railway. Our hotel in Kyoto for the next 3 days was the APA Hotel Kyoto Gion Excellent. This hotel is located in the heart of Gion, within walking distance to Gion Shijo Station, and many recommended autumn foliage viewing sites in the Higashiyama District.

 

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