Sanzen-in

Introduction

Sanzen-in sits in the mountain valley of Ohara north of Kyoto, one of the three monzeki temples of the Tendai school. It began as a hermitage founded by Saicho on Mt. Hiei, later became an imperial abbey, and after fires and several moves took the name Sanzen-in in 1871, after the Tendai idea of 'three thousand realms in a single thought', before settling at today's site in the Meiji era. Two gardens set the mood. Shoho-en in front of the guest hall is a viewing garden built to be seen seated, attributed to the Edo tea master Kanamori Sowa, with clipped satsuki azaleas around its pond. Yusei-en beyond the Shinden is a strolling pond garden whose name comes from the line 'mountains and water have a clear sound'; moss spreads under tall cedars and cypresses and changes with every step. The 986 Ojo Gokurakuin hall stands in that moss, housing the national-treasure Amida Triad: the two attendants kneel with hips raised in the yamato-zuwari pose to welcome the dying, and the ceiling is hull-shaped to fit the great images. Small warabe Jizo statues donated by the sculptor Sugimura Takashi hide in the moss to the south, each with a different face, and reward a slow look downward. Over a thousand hydrangeas flower from mid-June to mid-July, and maple leaves scatter over the moss in late November, the two busiest and finest weeks of the year. A bowl of matcha on the guest-hall veranda facing Shoho-en says more about this temple than any hurried circuit.

✨ Highlights

🛈 Practical Info