I wanted to go to a flea market. And ended up in a temple.

The Shitennō-ji Buddhist temple, the first Buddhist temple in Japan, dating from the 6th century (albeit rebuilt), holds a flea market and produce market on the 21st and 22nd of each month. I love flea markets and it wasn’t far, so off I went.

Little did I expect to run into a multi-hour procession or ritual that was held. It was colorful, impressively choreographed along Japanese flute and pipe music.

The Shitennō are the four heavenly kings, each of them watches over one cardinal direction of the world and so the number 4 had an important role in the ritual.

I could only watch and guess what happened. Most of the ritual played out on a bridge between two parts of the temple, over a pond (with a number of turtles totally unipressed by the spectacle).

The four red balls seem to have symbolized the four heavenly kings, as many of the participants bowed to them.

At one point, children dressed up as a mixture of butterfly and geisha-make-up brought over food into the bigger temple. I watched at least for an hour, then walked on. When I returned, the ritual was still on.

I wish I could research more of it on the web, but it’s all in Japanese only.

But after all, I was there for the flea market, which was an interesting mix of food, spices, local produce and… well, stuff. Clothing, kimono’s, kitchen utensils, tools, electronics….

It wasn’t as big as I thought, but apparently it is always bigger on the first day.

I watched out for a Japanese coffee pot for my mom, as she collects them… but all they had were tea pots. Bummer.