Kyoto Special Events
A programme to celebrate our 130th anniversary has been arranged in Kyoto. It will be held on Saturday July
20th, a national holiday, and attended by our patron, H.I.H. Prince Takamado. The main event will be a lecture
given in the afternoon by Dr. Hubert Durt on "The Role of Yoshidayama in the Development of Buddhism and
Shinto in Kyoto". This will be followed by a walking tour of Yoshidayama which is just behind Kyoto
University. Both events are open to the public as well as ASJ members.
The lecture will be held at the Kyoto University Kaikan (Kyodai Kaikan, Kawahara-machi 15-9, Yoshida,
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto Tel. (075) 751-8311) from 3:00-4:30 p.m. with registration opening at 2:00 p.m. An evening
reception will be held at the Hakusa-sonso Gardens from 5:30 -7:00 p.m. (Jodoji, Ishibashi-cho 37, Sakyo-ku,
Kyoto Tel. (075) 751-0446 , on the Imadegawa near Ginkakuji)
For RESERVATIONS AND OTHER INFORMATION
Contact the Asiatic Society office via fax (03) 5976-6569 or
email <asj@gol.com>
Dr. Durt was born in Brussels, but is now a French citizen. He received his Ph.D. in Oriental (Buddhist)
Languages and History from the University of Louvain in 1970. In 1961-63 he was a research student at the
universities of Kyoto and Tokyo. Among his many distinguished positions, he has been secretary of the
Melanges Chinoises et Bouddhiques since 1964, and was, from 1970 until his retirement last year, a member of
the Ecole Française d'Extreme-Orient, Kyoto Branch. He has been a contributor to the Hobogirin Project
(Encyclopaedia of Sino-Japanese Buddhist Terminology) since 1965, and chief editor since 1981. He is currently
Professor at the International College of Advanced Buddhist Studies in Tokyo, and since 1997, has been
Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Lumbini International Research Institute in Nepal. He is also a
member of the Council of the ASJ.
Yoshidayama in the religious landscape of Kyoto
Situated in the north-eastern side of the city of Kyoto, Yoshidayama is known as one of the few picturesque hills
rising above the flat and regular ground-plan of the ancient capital. Yoshidayama is nowadays mostly known
because it is on its western foot that the main buildings of Kyoto National University were built at the end of the
19th century.
Yoshidayama has a long history. Like the eastern hills of Kyoto, it has been for centuries the seat of Buddhist
temples and of the cemeteries attached to them. Among the temples, the Shinnyodo belonging to the Tendai
sect (Hieizan) and the Kurotani Kinkai Komyoji belonging to the Jodo sect (Honen) are especially beautiful and
rich in historical memories, but it is the Shinto shrine of Yoshida Jinja that is the most famous and interesting
monument on Yoshida Hill. The main sanctuary, the Gengu, is a unique and majestic octagonal construction
devoted to all the gods and goddesses of Japan. It is open to the public only at Setsubun (2-4 February). The
generally quiet Yoshidayama becomes incredibly crowded during these three days! Such a sanctuary has to be
understood in the perspective of Yoshida Shinto, a system of thought elaborated in the 15th and 16th centuries
with national and Confucian preoccupations, representing one of the first attempts at confronting Buddhism
with an 'articulated' Shinto.