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Heian Jingu Review
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Heian Jingu
- Address: Okazakinishi Tenno-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto
- Phone: 075/371-5649
- Category: Religious Sites
- Location: Sakyo-ku
Fodor's Review:
One of the city's newest historical sites, Heian Jingu was built in 1894 to mark the 1,100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto. The shrine honors two emperors: Kammu (737-806), who founded the city in 794, and Komei (1831-66), the last emperor to live out his reign in Kyoto. The new buildings are for the most part replicas of the old Imperial Palace, at two-thirds the original size. Still, the dignity and the relative spacing of the East Hon-den and West Hon-den (the Main Halls), and the Daigoku-den (Great Hall of State), in which the Heian emperor would issue decrees, conjure up an image of how magnificent the Heian court must have been. During New Year's, kimono-clad and gray-suited Japanese come to pay homage, trampling over the imposing gravel forecourt leading to the Great Hall of Slate.
There are three stroll gardens at Heian Jingu positioned east, west, and north of the shrine itself. They follow the Heian aesthetic of focusing on a large pond, a rare feature at a Shinto shrine. The steps of the stepping-stone path that crosses the water are recycled pillars from a 16th-century bridge that spanned the Kamo-gawa before an earthquake destroyed it.
The best times to visit the shrine are when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom (usually early April) and on June 1 or 2 for the nighttime Takigi No performances, so named because they're lighted by takigi (burning firewood); they take place on a stage in front of the Great Hall of State. During the October 22 Jidai Festival, a pageant of 2,000 people attired in costumes from every period winds its way from the Imperial Palace and ends here. From the Dobutsu-en-mae bus stop, follow the street between the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art and the National Museum of Modern Art directly to the shrine.
- Cost: Garden ¥600; Takigi No ¥3,300 at gate, ¥2,500 in advance
- Open: Mid-Mar.-Aug., daily 8:30-5:30; Sept., Oct., and early Mar., daily 8:30-5; Nov.-Feb., daily 8:30-4:30
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