Religious Commerce

Much of the sustenance of a cultural landmark, as often prior mentioned, involves immersing visitors in an environment that engrosses them in a sense of the past existence of the cultural site. While the sense of these activities may be more pronounced or exaggerated in Chinese examples, Japanese cultural sites are no less culprits of such capitalization.

Many of the temples and shrines of Japan, including Senso-ji in Tokyo, and the topic of this document, Kiyomizu-dera in Eastern Kyoto, are host to highly developed commercial choreographies, the least of which are sophisticated shopping streets leading up to the temples themselves. A great sloping street leads up the side of the mountainous terrain just below Kiyomizu-dera, flanked on either side for quite some distance with shops, restaurants, and boutiques selling everything from ice cream and yukata, traditional Japanese bathrobes, to fans and fake samurai swords, to cellphone keychains and Giant Pocky.

Within the proper premises of the Kiyomizu-dera are further instances of commercial insistences that go beyond the entrance fee. Beyond the entrance are several points of worship within the main building, the Hondo, each with a coffer at which worshippers are implored to toss prescribed cash amounts in a ceremonial fashion. A curio-stand just to the right of one of these points offers the sale of talismans and omikuji, or paper fortunes, carved or written upon with specific Chinese characters bestowing specific fortunes or favors against bad omens. Similar services are offered throughout the complex, generally besides a point of worship such as the Kannon Bodhisattva or Amitabha Mahalaka. Behind the Hondo, up a flight of stairs is the Jishu-jinja, the matchmaking shrine, in which several coffers and directives implore a variety of donations for an individual to pray for and perform ceremonial tasks to either ask for love or to ask for the longevity of existing relationships.

Even the Otowa-no-taki, a waterfall the inspired the namesake of the complex, is involved with a ceremonial ritual in which visitors and pilgrims are encouraged to use a long apparatus to spoon water from the natural mountain waterfall diverted into three streams and drink from one of the three to attain different effects, is tainted with a large coffer right in the center.