Kyoto Mania

The Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art is located in Oyamazaki-cho, Otokuni-gun, southwest of Kyoto City. It was built between the Taisho and Showa periods as a mountain villa for a businessman in the Kansai region. After the death of him, Asahi Breweries, a close friend of him, bought the land and buildings and opened it to the public as an art museum in 1996. The museum's main building and five other structures are registered tangible cultural properties as valuable modern architectures.   This year marks the 25th anniversary of the museum, and the special collection "Reflecting Dreams: The Museum's Collection of Pictures" is on display.   From JR Kyoto Station, get off at Yamazaki Station, the fifth station in the direction of Osaka. As you walk up the hill to the northeast, you will see the entrance to the museum, a stone tunnel. This tunnel is also a registered tangible cultural property. After entering the site and walking up the slope for a ...

    On June 30th, "Nagoshi-no-Ooharae(i.e. Summer Purification Rites)" are held at many shrines in Kyoto. This year, I went to Matsunoo Taisha Shrine, the guardian deity of the west of Kyoto.   Matsunoo Taisha is one of the oldest shrines in Kyoto, built in 701 AD. It has many divine virtues, but it is especially the god of brewing, and is revered by brewers, miso, soy sauce, and vinegar manufacturers and sellers all over the country.   After passing through the shrine's torii gate, there is a large thatch ring, which our readers are already familiar with. Go through it in a leftward and rightward direction, and finally go straight.   They sell sweets called Minazuki, which is a good luck charm made from kuzu powder, etc. On the 29th and 30th, you can get an "Oharaisan(i.e. Mr.exorcist)" made of thatch (pay a donation of about 100 yen). "We're going to run out of Oharaisan this year," said a shrine worker. Everyone seems t...