In the end,we visit three of them,including Fushimi Inari,famous for the thousand scarlet-red gates (torii) that snake up the side of Mount Inari. For the first-time visitor to Kyoto,Fushimi Inari is a must-see,but my advice would be to go very early (entry is free and it’s open 24 hours,365 days a year) because during the day it’s an overcrowded nightmare,a victim of its own beauty.
Tick it off your list and then take the time to visit Kennin-ji and Tanukidani Fudoin temples – or as I remember them,the dragon and the scrotum temples respectively.
Kennin-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple in the Higashiyama district. Founded in 1202 it did what many of the temples in Japan have done over the years and burnt down. Several times. The current Johnny-come-lately buildings date from the 16th and 18th centuries.
Apart from a funny sign warning visitors there is no lying down in the temple,it’s the artworks that catch the eye. Wind God and Thunder God,by artist Tawaraya Sotatsu,is a set of folding screens depicting the aforesaid demon-headed celestials using ink and colour on gold-foil paper. Painted in the 17th century Edo Period it has quite rightly been designated a National Treasure of Japan.
Kennin-ji was founded in 1202.Credit:iStock