Ishiyama Temple Fall Illumination Festival

名月彩る源氏物語　石山寺秋月祭

To celebrate the harvest moon, Ishiyama Temple is hosting its annual fall festival.

From September 18th until the 21st, the grounds of the temple will be decorated with 2,000 Japanese lanterns.

The illumination captures the mood of early fall and is divine.

Ishiyama Temple is of course where Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote Genji Monogatari, the world's first novel.

In addition to the lanterns, there will be readings of sections of Genji, dance, and musical performances.

Information

Access: 10-minute walk from Keihan Ishiyamadera Station, or bus from JR Biwako Line Ishiyama Stn. and soon after getting off at Ishiyamadera-Sanmonmae bus stop.

500 yen entrance fee

Ishiyama Temple
1-1-1 Ishiyama Dera, Otsu City, Shiga 520-0861 Telephone 077 537 0013


For cyclists, Ishiyama Temple is an hour or so from Kyoto along the Lake Biwa route. It is over a hill and would be very dark at night.

Photo © Kyoto Shinbun

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Deer Eating the Flowers in Ishiyama Temple Shiga

シカ食害「花の寺」危機　石山寺　殺生できず苦慮

Bambi has gone a bit wild in nearby Otsu, Shiga Prefecture.

At one of western Japan's best-known temples, Ishiyama Temple, deer have munched over 1000 hydrangea plants. Those flowers are associated with the rainy season in Japan, and a major draw for visitors to the temple.

The deer also feasted on iris and bush clover.

Damage from deer became pronounced about ten years ago. As the temple is close to the mountains that separate Kyoto and Shiga, deer are frequent visitors. Moreover, because of human-induced changes in the eco-system - post-war Japan tore out much of its deciduous forests and planted more lucrative (at the time) stands of cedar - the deer have little to eat in the forests. Thus, they and monkeys and boar are coming farther and farther into suburban and urban areas in search of food.

Hunting is banned in the area around the temple, and Buddhists are of course prohibited from the taking of life. Thus, the monks are in a quandary.

Nets have been placed around the temple, but they have not deterred the deer.

Ishiyama Temple is not far from the Lake Biwa route and close enough to Kyoto to visit on a day-trip.

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Kyoto Exhibit 7 Scroll Paintings of Ishiyama Temple Museum of Modern Art

石山寺絵巻展覧会

For those riding the Lake Biwa circuit, or just happen to be near Otsu, this fall there will be a great exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, in Otsu City.

The total seven-volume set of "Ishiyama-dera Engi Emaki," or a scroll painting of the legend of Ishiyama-dera Temple, will be put on display for the first time in October at the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, in Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture.

The seven-volume set of scrolls is made up of 33 scenes with pictures and notes. It measures roughly 110 meters in total length. Each of the scrolls was made in a different period, divided among the Kamakura, Muromachi and Edo Periods.

Information

Museum of Modern Art, Shiga
Tel: 077 543 2111
October 6 to November 25
Note: volumes designated as an Important Cultural Property will only be displayed from October 6 to 14 and November 13 to 25.


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