The Golden Temple

As I mentioned in my post about Christopher Columbus, there is a golden temple not far from here, in Hiraizumi town.  Hiraizumi was once a cultural center to rival Kyoto.  Unfortunately it was conquered and burned to the ground.  Most of the buildings were lost.  The temple area had hundreds of temples.  Only a few survived the fire and a few have been reconstructed.  Luckily, the Golden Temple and the Noh theater survived.

My favorite thing about seeing temples and shrines is the woodwork.

The inside of that temple looked like this.  Having seen other temples, I can tell you that this is what the often look like inside.  They are crowded with statues and incense holders.  The box in the lower left corner is the donation box.

The two pictures above are separate buildings.  The thatched roofs are still around.  Only in the past twenty or thirty years have they been largely replaced by metal and tile, or so I was told.  I'm pretty sure the chicken wire is a more modern innovation though.

This is a string of a thousand paper cranes.  Tradition holds that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, the crane will grant you one wish.  They are popular wedding gifts.

Here is the largest temple.  Many people were doing the ritual dancing, clapping their hands and making a donation.

Isn't it fun just to look at?  Temples as ornate as this might be 800 years old.  Imagine building this without power tools.

This is the stage of an old Noh theater.  Plays are still held here on special occasions.

Now, you might be wondering where the Golden Temple is. "Where are the pictures of that, Nate?" you might be asking.  I have a confession to make.  I don't have any pictures of it.  Cameras weren't allowed inside.  I took a picture of the building that houses the golden temple though.  Will that do?

Yeah, it's kind of a letdown.  I'm sorry.  If it makes you feel better, when we visited it was later in the afternoon.  You had to buy a ticket to see the museum and the temple.  I asked how much it was.  About ten dollars.  I paid for Kelli and I and as the lady handed the tickets to me she said everything closed at 5:00.  It was 4:46.  It would've been nice to know before we paid.  So if you feel bamboozled because there aren't any pictures of the Golden Temple, at least you didn't pay twenty bucks for a 15 minute look at this blog post.