Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [250]
The father of modern manga was Tezuka Osamu, who, in the late 1940s, began working cinematic effects based on European movies into his cartoons – pioneering multipanel movements, perspectives that brought the reader into the action, close-ups, curious angles and a host of movielike techniques. His adventurous stories quickly became movie-length comic strips – essentially films drawn on paper. What Tezuka started took off in a big way once weekly magazines realised they could boost sales by including manga in their pages. Tezuka’s most famous works include Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), Black Jack and Rion Kōtei (Jungle Emperor Leo, which Disney adapted to make the film The Lion King).
These days manga have proliferated and diversified to an almost unimaginable degree, and there is literally no topic that manga do not explore. There are manga for young boys and girls, manga for white-collar workers, manga for studying, historical manga and even high literary manga. And let’s not forget the inevitable sukebe manga (pornographic manga), which contain some truly bizarre and often disturbing sexual images.
Unfortunately, almost all manga available in Japan are written in Japanese. These days, however, some of Japan’s better English-language bookshops stock English translations of famous Japanese manga. Try the Kyoto branch of Junkudō bookshop Click here or the giant Kinokuniya bookshop in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area Click here.
If you want to get a quick taste of what’s out there in the manga world, drop into any Japanese convenience store and check out the magazine rack. If you want to delve deeper, head for a manga kissa (manga coffee shop), where buying one drink will give you access to a huge library of manga (and internet access to boot). Finally, real manga fans will want to check out Kyoto’s International Manga Museum.
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Southern Higashiyama
The Higashiyama district, which runs along the base of the Higashiyama mountains (Eastern Mountains), is the main sightseeing district in Kyoto and it should be at the top of your Kyoto itinerary. It is thick with impressive sights: fine temples, shrines, gardens, museums, traditional neighbourhoods and parks. In this guide, we divide the Higashiyama district into two sections: Southern Higashiyama and Northern Higashiyama.
This section starts at the southern end, around Shichijō-dōri, and works north, to Sanjō-dōri. You could cover these in the order presented in a fairly long day. The best way to see the highlights here is to take our Southern Higashiyama Walking Tour.
SANJŪSANGEN-DŌ
The original Sanjūsangen-dō (Map; 525-0033; 657 Sanjūsangendōmawari-chō, Higashiyama-ku; admission ¥600; 8am-4.30pm, 9am-3.30pm 16 Nov-16 Mar) was built in 1164 at the request of the retired emperor Go-shirakawa. The temple burnt to the ground in 1249 but a faithful copy was constructed in 1266.
The temple’s name refers to the 33 (sanjūsan) bays between the pillars of this long, narrow building that houses 1001 statues of the 1000-armed Kannon (the Buddhist goddess of mercy). The largest Kannon is flanked on either side by 500 smaller Kannon images, neatly lined up in rows.
There are an awful lot of arms, but if you’re picky and think the 1000-armed statues don’t have the required number of limbs, then you should remember to calculate according to the nifty Buddhist mathematical formula that holds that 40 arms are the equivalent of 1000 arms, because each saves 25 worlds.
At the back of the hall are 28 guardian statues in a great variety of expressive poses. The gallery on the western side of the hall is famous for the annual Tōshi-ya Matsuri, held on 15 January, during which archers shoot arrows the length of the hall. The ceremony dates back to the Edo period, when an annual contest was held to see how many arrows could be shot