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Above: "The unique five-storied Yasaka Pagoda, Kyoto, Japan." Stereoscope by H.C. White and Co. (1907). Personal collection. Header image: Detail from Yoshida Hatsusaburō, "Kyoto: The Kyoto Grand Exposition in Commemoration of the Imperial Coronation" (1928), showing the pagoda in the centre. Nichibunken Database
A well-known landmark in its own right (as today), the Yasaka Pagoda or Yasaka Tower was also a popular building to climb (and, as the quotes below suggest, complain about the climb). From the upper floor, tourists could take in a panorama of Kyoto. As with most of the most acclaimed viewpoints from this period, part of its appeal presumably lay in its close proximity to the hotels and sightseeing spots of Higashiyama.
“After a hasty luncheon [at the Yaami Hotel], served quite in European fashion, as the ‘host’ is always prepared for foreign visitors, we sallied forth to see some of the lions of the place, going first to the Yusaka [sic.] tower, a pagoda with five galleries, which, I understand, has been used as a receptacle for sacred books and ornaments. From the summit, which is rather tiresome to climb to, we had a splendid view of the city and the surrounding country, and could have stayed up there some time with great pleasure, had not the voice of Mr. D. warned us that we had much to do, and a short time to do it in.”
Ralph Watts Leyland, Round the World in 124 Days (Liverpool: G. G. Walmsley, 1880), 157
“Strolling slowly back to our hotel through the beautiful temple groves, past the ‘spectacle’ bridge and numerous shrines, we found that our path took us directly past the Yasaka pagoda. A fee of about a farthing each, paid to an old dame on the ground floor, admitted us. Scrambling up steep wooden steps to the fifth and highest story, we crawled through a narrow trap door, and emerged on the wooden balcony, for which trouble a splendid view of Kioto and the mountains beyond rewarded us.”
Arthur H. Crow, Highways and Byeways in Japan: The Experiences of Two Pedestrian Tourists (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1883), 60
Top left: W.E.L. Keeling's Tourists' Guide (1880), 81. MIT Visualizing Cultures. Bottom left: Chamberlain and Mason, A Handbook for Travellers in Japan (1891), 325. Right: Terry's Guide to the Japanese Empire (1928), 425
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