There's a distinction that should be made between visiting castles, shrines, and temples. Castles were built for defense, just like Europe, but with a different Aesthetic. Shrines were built to honor Shinto gods. Temples are ... Buddhist Temples. Two different religions here, and visitors have to pay to see actually visit a temple. It's not much usually, right around $5, but still. I'm not sure if one has to pay to visit castles, but I think they get you with the gift shop instead. Which all three have mind you. Also shrines tend to be the livliest places, with stands selling food and souvenirs, and people chatting away and taking pictures. You don't see that much at temples, mostly because there might be monks praying, and visitors are not allowed to take pictures inside the temples. That being said, I took a single picture inside Toji Temple. It has been named "The Illegal Picture" and it was worth it. Also, temples and shrines are very much still in use today, as well as being popular travel destinations. There are priests (shrines) and monks (temples) that worship, and the priests still perform purification ceremonies, ya know, all that Shinto related stuff.
Actually, both places I went were temples. And the only reason why I went was because I friend of mine is in a class here called Art of the Kansai Area, and they take field trips on weekends to temples in the region. They've traveled to Kyoto and Nara that I know of for sure. The field trips are optional, and this time they could bring friends, assuming we paid our own way. These plans were better than no plans.
The first temple was south of Kyoto in Uji, named Byodoin. The big attraction about Byodoin would be Phoenix temple, the place that is on the back of the 10 yen coin.
Within Phoenix Temple is a buddha, that looks out through a giant ... well, window. I couldn't get any pictures inside to show, but there's also paintings on the doors that show buddha and his followers (I don't know what they're called I just know that there are 52 of them, they all have their own instruments, and they ride clowds) arriving to gather the soul of a newly dead person. The original was touched up and is in a museum, with really bright blues and greens, while the temple itself has rather new doors painted to look old. Also the buddha statue is made from wood. And because it's HUGE, they cut and carved multiple trees then glued them together, covering the seems with lacquer and gold trim.
The second temple visited was less interesting, especially since everything was inside. It's where I took The Illegal Picture: (I only call it that because some random person caught me with my phone out....I didn't have flash on so that saved me)
I'm sure if I knew the history behind the plethora of statues, I would have been more impressed. All I know is that there they had the head (king?) Buddha, with statues of other prominent buddhas, like history and the four cardinal directions. The statues were quite nice, with very detailed armor. I just ... don't know anything about buddhism besides what was (poorly) taught to me in middle and elementary school. So, I'm not even going to pretend to know what I'm talking about. And I didn't follow the professor around, I followed my friend. She definitly knows more than I do at this point, because she's in the class and all. Kansai art that's in these temples is to the Kansai region what the Renaissance was the Europe: people painting and scultping religious figures.
Also those gold leave looking things behind that buddha and other standing guy? Yeah, that's supposed to be fire. A fire halo to be exact. It took me a bit to get fire out of it, but on closer inspection of the larger flame halos, the details came through. It's also fire to represent power. That's also not the head Buddha, he's in the other building I didn't take any pictures in, along with all the other statues. Side note: there were two Hindu scuptures (not surprising because both Buddhism and Shintoism actually took gods and prominant figures from Hinduism....and China). One was a guy riding an elephant, the other was Shiva with those six arms. That's how I knew that they didn't fully belong: Shiva is prominent even among people with little to no knowledge of Hinduism, and elephants (besides not existing in Japan) are considered sacred animals. The cardinal direction buddha's were marked by the fact that they were in the corners, and the other buddha's could be identified by how they had their hands places and what they were or were not holding. Which meant nothing to me. Toji also had a little shrine in it? I'm not sure why, but probably because many Japanese people don't know the difference between Shinto and Buddhism, hell most don't even know about Shintoism, and it basically exists in every day life.
Shrines are more fun to go to, you can wish for good luck, get snacks only in that shrine, you don't have to know anything about the place you're going to, and you don't have to pay to see anything.
じゃあ、またね。