This week on the 29 stops of the JR Yamanote Line i visited Gotanda, this was the first time i’d been to Gotanda and exactly the reason behind visiting all 29 stops, to go to places i ordinarily wouldn’t have thought to visit.
Gotanda (五反田, Gotanda) is described as a busy but unfashionable neighborhood in the Shinagawa ward of Tokyo, Japan. The name “Gotanda” can be literally translated as “a (rice) paddy of half-hectare’s size”. The district straddles the Meguro river, and is located between the Meguro and Ōsaki stations on the JR Yamanote Line.
“The JR loop severs the neighbourhood into two districts. Higashi (East) Gotanda lies inside the Yamanote loop, while Nishi (West) Gotanda is outside the loop. Nishi-Gotanda is largely residential, with moderately-sized apartment buildings close to the JR station and quiet leafy streets in the outlying reaches.
Higashi-Gotanda is home to Seisen University, NTT East Kanto Hospital, several temples and shrines and as many office towers like a mid-sized North American city.
Higashi-Gotanda also has a substantial number of hotels, including some of the famed capsule hotel style. Some of the buildings making up the sprawling world headquarters of Sony are found along the eastern edge of Higashi-Gotanda.”
This weeks theme in The Photo Hunt is Important or Taisetsu (たいせつ) in Japanese.
I thought long and hard about this weeks theme and recent events led me to choose religion as being a good way to describe “Important” while keeping a Japanese flavour to my photos.
Coming from a country where religion is mainly observed by other ethnic groups, being an Australian of English decent it’s something that’s never featured prominantly in my life.
Although i spent New Years Eve in Australia this year, last year i spent it in Japan and was amazed at how many young folk visit Temples and Shrines on or shortly after New Years Eve, New Years Day and other significant holidays in Japan.
This weeks photo was taken in Kyoto, about 2 hrs south of Japan on the Shinkansen.
I also took a few photos from one of the most well known Shrines in Tokyo, Meiji Jingu which i visited on New Years day 2007. The first few days of the year are exceptionally busy at Meiji Jingu and at many Shrines in Japan.
Meiji Shrine (明治神宮, Meiji Jingū?), located near Harajuku Station in Tokyo, Japan, is the Shinto shrine dedicated to the souls of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shoken in 1914. After the demise of the Emperor and Empress, this shrine was constructed to venerate them.
On the back of last weeks Photo Hunt i had a few emails and a request for more info from Tokyo Expat on where exactly the Temple was i had taken the photo and if i had any others of the surrounding area.
The temple was the Tenryu-ji Temple 天竜寺, nestled on a slope of the Arashiyama district of Kyoto, Tenryu-ji (“heavenly dragon temple”) is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list and is the head temple of the Tenryu-ji branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism.
Unfortunately the day i visited Kyoto the weather turned bad shortly after lunch so i literally had 3 or 4 hrs in the morning to take in some sights. After a walk through the temple grounds there was a nature walk through the bamboo and into the foot hills.
Like other Rinzai Zen temples in Kyoto (Nanzenji, Tofukuji, Ryoanji…) it is noted for its Zen gardens and extensive white buildings.
The temple was founded in 1339 by Shogun Ashikaga Takauji in memory of emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339), with whom he sided during the civil war which brought to an end the Kamakura Shogunate (1185-1333).
Tenryu-ji was actually a former villa of emperor Go-Daigo himself. The site had earlier been occupied by the Danrin-ji temple since the 9th century, the first Zen temple in Japan. Emperor Kameyama (1249-1305) built a villa on the propoerty, where his grandson Go-Daigo was raised and educated.
