New Temples

Many of the temples in Kyoto are old, and some are very old, dating as far back as 800 A.D. Amongst all this antiquity, it can be surprising to come across much newer temples and shrines. Here, for example is a shrine, located next to the rugby shrine that I visited back in March, that was built in 2005:

And just the other day I visited a temple that may be even more recent, judging by the condition of the wood:

It should be noted that these are new temple buildings, but not necessarily new temples. Wooden buildings have a limited lifespan, not to mention the risk of fire and other forms of damage, so the rebuilding of parts of temples has been ongoing throughout Kyoto's history. In other cases, the new buildings are new sub-temples in an existing (and usually very old) temple complex.