Kennin-ji and the Geisha

Back to our Kyoto/Osaka trip, after our trip to the thousand torii gates we were heading back to our house and on the way stopped by a temple in the neighborhood we were staying in, Kennin-ji. We thought, even though the kids were tired, we could sneak in one more thing seeing it was on the way back. Founded in 1202, Kennin-ji claims to be the oldest zen temple in Kyoto.

Many of the temples in Kyoto have zen gardens, and they are strangely captivating.

Even the woodwork is amazing. Yeah, Dan and I are nerdy.

This is the ceiling in the main hall and this painting was installed in 2002 to commemorate the temples 800th anniversary.

I think this is what would have been the living quarters.

Tea ceremony in progress.

In addition to the zen gardens, these inner courtyards were my favorite.

Fujin and Raijin by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, a National Treasure.

Rayce got a nice shot of the outside of the main hall.

As we made our way back to our house we saw a couple of geisha. It's not uncommon in the area we were staying to see geisha, but anyone can pay to get dressed up like the geisha, so sometimes it's hard to tell if the geisha is the real deal or not.

I think the girls we saw were "apprentice geisha". They apprentice for up to 5 years before they are considered geisha or "geiko". These poor girls get mobbed, it's like paparazzi.

I was trying to be sly about my picture taking and keep a respectful distance but then...

I couldn't resist asking for a photo. These girls I think were apprentices, full geisha do not have the decorations in their hair like these girls with their flowers. Nonetheless, they were lovely and Avie didn't mind having her picture taken with them a bit. More to come.