Yasaka Shrine
— a sky too blue for night, a moon already gold.
Not only on a wall.
“The Rōmon at the east end of Shijō-dōri. The gate has stood in some form here since 656, painted vermilion since long before any of us were anywhere. In the first three days of January nearly a million people climb these steps for hatsumode, the year's first shrine visit — lanterns donated by Kyoto's sake brewers strung along the eaves, the cold smell of cedar and sacred fire, the slow shuffle to the rope. If the sky is clear, the moon makes its own case.
Yasaka Shrine, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $78 for a set of 4, cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Yasaka Jinja stands at the east end of Shijō-dōri, where the busiest street of central Kyoto runs into the Higashiyama hills. The shrine has occupied this site since 656 AD according to its own records, making it one of the oldest active Shinto shrines in Japan and the head shrine of the Gion faith. The vermilion Rōmon main gate — the structure most visitors see first, climbing the stone steps from the Gion district — dates in its current form to 1666. The precinct covers about 11 acres and sits immediately west of Maruyama Park, the city's most loved cherry-blossom ground.
Yasaka Jinja is most photographed at night, and most often at hatsumode. The eaves of the haiden (worship hall) carry rows of paper lanterns donated by Kyoto's sake breweries — gold against the dark blue roof tile and the deeper blue of the winter sky. During the okera-mairi rite, observed at the shrine since the Heian period, a sacred fire burns through the night of January 1; visitors light a length of straw rope from it and carry the flame home to start the household's first cooking of the year.
The shrine is free to enter and open twenty-four hours, year-round. Hatsumode runs January 1-3 and draws close to a million visitors — densest from midnight to 3 AM on the first. Gion Matsuri, hosted by Yasaka Jinja, takes place across most of July and is one of Japan's three great festivals; the yamaboko float processions run on July 17 and 24. For quieter visits, weekday mornings outside festival periods are best. The cherry blossoms in adjacent Maruyama Park peak in late March and early April.