When I
decided to study architecture, I never thought the huge imaginary around this
beautiful career. At the beginning I started learning about my environment,
from the architectural point of view, but now, when I am in my third year on
this career, is necessary to question what is beyond that environment, beyond
my limits -or the limits of the society that around me- so in this point my
mind starts to thinking about what is out there, what is the architectural environment
of another people, what is the matter or the important things in another
countries to have in consideration. In the last time, I have been very
interested in the Japanese culture, and of course, in the architecture of that
beautiful country, and here I can say something very relevant for me and for
this post, I do not have a favorite building to show in this post, because when
I introduce myself in this amazing Japanese culture, I realized I really do not
like what around me, because I see all that history of those beautiful temples
in the Nippon Island and then I can not feel attracted by anything else.
So in this
post is very glad for me to talk about a place I heard about for the first time
two years ago, in my first year of college, in my class of "Architecture
Theory", because my teacher traveled to Japan and came back with lots of
histories, and among those she talk about the Fushimi Inari Taisha. This is one
of the most popular sanctuaries in Japan and is the place dedicated to the
Inari god, who used to be at first the goddess of rice, and then the patron of
business. And that title of the god was the reason for each Japanese grateful
of the riches given by Inari to donate to the sanctuary a Torii, which is a
kind of arch, and today the Torii's quantity is amazing and it forms part of
the constitution of the sanctuary. The principal building inside this huge place
is the Inari's Temple, but there are many other buildings that sell food or souvenirs. Every year lots of tourists -Japanese and from the
world- come to visit the beautiful buildings in the sanctuary, and of course the rest of the place, which includes the footpaths delimited by
the Toriis and the alternative footpaths through a bamboo forest, and all those
footpaths guides the people to the little sanctuaries present inside the
complete Inari's sanctuary.
For me is fascinating
this place, and all the details that compose it and is even more interesting to
know the histories around this, and what it represent for the Nippon culture or
why it is so important for the people of that country. I think that is
something important for an architect, to know why is important the old places,
the old buildings or parks or sanctuaries, and only after correctly understand that, we
can try to construct the continuation of the history.
thousand of Torii in a footpath
the figure of a fox -Kitsune- the messengers of Inari god,
present in all the sanctuary
a big Torii, and the Inari's Temple background
the main entrance of the Inari's Temple
souvenirs are sold in many points inside the sanctuary,
these with the shape of a fox -Kitsune-
