Autumn in Kyoto

Spring is the time for cherry blossoms and fall is the time for maple leaves in Japan.  Just as I did in the spring, I spent the last week or two reveling in the change of season, joining throngs of Japanese as they visit Kyoto’s temples and gardens to see the leaves.  Like them, I took lots of pictures; everywhere you turned there was a new vista, a lovelier tree. 

Japanese leaf-viewing is a bit different from what I’ve seen in New England.  There, people drive, clogging the roads and byways as they look at vistas of variegated color.  Here, people walk, clogging the pathways in temples and gardens, viewing the leaves up close.  The colors seem deeper here because of the maples.  And the season is later: here the maples are still deeply red, while a NY Times photo of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade showed brown-leafed trees in Central Park.

Japanese maples differ from  American ones.  The leaves are smaller and more pointed, with longer “fingers” than ours.   The larger leaves are roughly the size of my palm, while the smallest are about an inch across.  Like the cherry blossoms, there are many varieties, differing in leaf and tree size.  Most turn a deep burgundy red, though there are also maples that turn yellow.  What’s interesting is that a single leaf can be both green and red, red and orange-yellow.  Maybe that’s true in the US as well, but I’ve not (yet) looked close enough to tell.

Katsura Imperial Villa

Shugakuin Imperial Villa

I went to several places to see the leaves, and missed many others.  I went back to the Katsura and Shugakuin Imperial Villas to see these lovely gardens in the fall.

I went to several temples and shrines, including Tofukuji with a huge ravine of maples.  And I went to the Arashiyama area on the northeast side of Kyoto, which is one of the more popular (and crowded) places to see the leaves in its temples and gardens.

At one shrine, Shimogama, I was lucky enough to see a new bride and groom as they were leaving their wedding ceremony and pausing to have some formal pictures taken.  I’d seen couples in their traditional wedding garb before, but never had I seen the bride change to prepare for the reception.  As the wedding party and other bystanders looked on (me in awe), her white cap was removed to reveal a lovely, formal wig and decorations.  Her “dressers” carefully wrapped a white band around her hair, and then helped her into a heavily brocaded bright red overcoat before the groom carefully walked his bride down the path to the reception hall.  It was a wonderful ending to a glorious day.