Manga, a Shrine and Two Custard Taiyaki
Last weekend vgag and I had a day to spend in Kyoto, and after dragging her to the International Manga Museum (which had no BL manga except a copy of Antique Bakery behind glass and who even likes that series anyway besides the South Koreans who turned it into a movie that wasn’t even any good), I thought it only fair we also check out a site of historical and/or religious significance. This is easier said than done in a city where you’re more likely to trip over a major shrine than a piece of litter — there are too many to visit.
In the end I settled on Kitano Tenmangu (北野天満宮), a Shinto shrine dedicated to a scholar who died some thousand years ago in exile and was later blamed for causing various calamities beyond the grave. (What is it with me and angry, dead scholars? Earlier this year I also bought a scroll depicting Zhong Kui). To appease his spirit, the people deified him and built various shrines in his honour, including the complex we visited in Kyoto. Kitano Tengmangu as a deity is unsurprisingly associated with scholarship and success in academic endeavours, which is why school and university students often come to the shrine to write prayers before their exams.
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It was a beautiful-if-rainy early December’s day when we arrived, and there was still enough Autumn foliage hanging on the trees in the shrine’s grounds that neither vgag nor I were tempted to shell out an extra ¥600 for access to the garden. It was a quiet and restful oasis to spend time in and watch locals pay their respects, and the bus ride back to Kyoto Station was a great alternative way of seeing the city — I think we saw more of Kyoto in a day than we did earlier in the year when we were actually staying in the city.
On the way back to the bus stop from the shrine we also picked up some yummy custard taikyaki from a path-side vendor, and for someone as food-fixated as I am, this was the perfect ending to a great day.
