In 2023 the Government of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs was relocated to Kyoto from Tokyo. This event seems to enhance Kyoto's public image as the cultural capital of Japan.
But how would the version of Japanese culture represented by Kyoto be different from the one by Tokyo— a metropolis by and large built new from scratch after the WWII?
In my view, the most prominent differences would be the spiritual dimensions, which seem visible in the thousands of Hokora mini-shrines that still stand on nearly every corner of Kyoto's city center neighborhoods. The nearby residents take turns to clean those Hokora regularly and share the maintenance responsibilities. Those mini-shrines seem to be a visible example of the spiritual dimensions of Kyoto culture, integrated into people's everyday life.
Kyoto is also a city with wealth of various artifacts appreciated by many generations of people over a period of a few hundred years or longer. I just cannot help thinking that there must be something spiritual—beyond what we humans can grasp or control— in those artifacts' ability to transcend so many generations.
The sight of those mini-shrines makes me think that people in Kyoto have always known, like many traditional spiritual practice of various cultures in the world, about the human wellness benefits of worshiping deities—something utterly transcends us.
With thousands of those mini-shrines, Kyoto seems to keep its people be grounded in the spiritual dimensions of life. At YA we like to think such spiritually-conscious culture potentially provides fertile ground for good architecture that transcends generations.
