Kyoto's zen temples

 

Kyoto is a fascinating city with a lot of history. Famous for Geisha's and it's Tea houses and Temples. This refined city has a lot to discover. When visiting the temples you will also see some of Japans finest gardens.

Zen Gardens:

Most temples arrange several types of gardens in and around there buildings. Landscape gardens dominated by large ponds with small islands in it or perfectly manicured moss gardens can all be found on the temple grounds. But one of the most well known type of garden is the rock garden (karesansui in Japanese).

Kyoto Zen temples with rock gardens:

• Shoden-ji temple

• Daitoku-ji temple

                        - Ryogen-in

                        - Daisen-in

                        - Zuihō-in

                        - Sangen-in

                        - Kōrin-in

• Ryoan-ji temple

• Myoshin-ji temple (only partly open to public)

                        - Taizo-in

• Tenryu-ji temple

• Eikando zenrin-ji temple

• Nanzen-ji temple

                        - Tenju-an

                        - Konchi-in

• Kennin-ji temple

• Tofuku-ji temple

• Saiho-ji

 

Temples and sub-temples

Several temples are actually large complexes with many sub-temples on there premises. The main Temple is indicated with "ji" for example Daitoku-ji. Sub-temples have extensions that sometimes indicate there function or just indicate it to be a sub-temple.

Temples are still in active use so you might find some are not open to public or temporarily closed for a ritual.

 

Zen Buddhism background:

Japanese Zen has its roots in China where it is called Chan Buddhism. Chan Buddhism is a Chinese innovation on the Indian forms of Buddhism that seeped into China.

The Chinese Chan monks rejected worshipping of objects and did not rely on extensive collections of texts to reach enlightenment. In their view enlightenment should be reached through meditation.

In China working in the fields to provide for there own food was also stimulated as a form of meditation. This was different from the Indian tradition of food begging Monks. However begging was culturally not acceptable in China.

There iconoclastic attitude helped Chan Buddhism to survive persecutions during several Chinese dynasties. They could not easily be accused of being parasites of society. And Chan was less vulnerable to destruction of paraphernalia too. This in contrast to other Buddhist schools in China that at some periods struggeld to survive at the cost of Daoism.

However during the evolution of Chan/Zen Buddhism a lot of texts and paraphernalia and rituals where actually introduced.

Most temples in modern Japan are hereditary whereby a son inherits the role of abbot from there parents. It is a very lucrative business to own a temple and collect compensations for rituals performed at funerals.

Chan Buddhism was introduced in Japan in the 12th century ("Pure Land Buddhism" was introduced much earlier, 6th century). <<<Kamakura and Monk name>>>The Zen schools that remain in Japan are the Sōtō (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済), and Ōbaku (黃檗). Rinzai is itself divided by temple affiliation, including Myoshin-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Daitoku-ji, and Tofuku-ji.

Despite its popularity in the West, Japanese Zen Buddhism is actually a small movement in Japan itself. Most of Japanese Buddhism is based on the 'Pure Land' variant of Buddhism.

 

Key temples not to miss :

information

• Kyoto general tourist information

location

A: 72 Kitachinjuan-cho Nishigamo Kita-ku, Kyoto
T : 075-491-3259
A: 15-minute walk from City Bus Stop Jinko-in-mae
O: 9:00-17:00


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information

• Daitoku-ji (Wikipedia)
• Daitoku-ji (Home page)

location

A: 53 Murasakino Daitokuji-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8231
T : 075-491-0019
A: 5-minute walk from City Bus Stop Daitokujimae
    5-minute walk from City Bus Stop Senbon-kitaoji
O: 9:00-16:30

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information

• Ryoan-ji (home page)

location

A: 13 Ryoanji-Goryo-Sita-machi, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto
T : 075-463-2216
A: 1-minute walk from City Bus Stop Ryoan-ji-mae
     (from Hankyu Sanjo Station)
     7-minute walk from Keifuku Railway
    Ryoan-ji-michi Station
O: 8:00-17:00 (May-Nov) / 8:30-16:30 (Dec-Feb)

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information

• Nanzen-ji (home page)