DAITOKU-JI

This temple is actually an imposing complex of 22 temples around the Daitoku-ji and surrounded by a wall. Only 4 of them are permanently open. Three others open irregularly and the others are completely closed to the public. The complex is one of the jewels of Zen architecture. We discover there at the same time the rigour, the richness and the simplicity of this culture. Temple of the Rinzai Zen Buddhism sect, the Daitoku-ji was founded in 1319 by the monk Kokushi Daitō (1282-1337). Initially, the temple was of modest size but it burned down in 1468, during the Onin Civil War. It was rebuilt by Ikkyū in 1479 with funds from Nishijin merchants who had fled near Osaka during the civil war. Its political fate was sealed when Toyotomi Hideyoshi held the funeral of his predecessor Oda Nobunaga there. Thanks to political patronage and money from merchants, the temple was the focus of cultural development, whether in painting, calligraphy, the tea ceremony or Zen gardens. Among the accessible buildings of the temple; the Chokushimon dating from 1599, the Butsu-den dating from 1665, and the Sanmon, where Sen no Rikyū, the tea master, is said to have had a statue of Buddha in his effigy installed. According to legend, this provoked the anger of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who demanded that Sen no Rikyu commit suicide in 1591.

Koto-in. Founded in 1601 by Tadaoki Hosokawa (1563-1645), a daimyō disciple of Sen no Rikyū, it has several points of interest, including an Ihokuken Hall from the residence of Rikyū. Also, a maple vault prepares the entrance to the temple. And the most impressive is the bamboo grove which diffuses a subdued light, and a strange green, like the diluted green of the ceremonial tea.

Daisen-in. This is one of the 5 most visited temples in Kyoto. In Hōjō, some sliding doors were painted by Sōami (1472-1523), the creator of Ryōan-ji. Around the Hōjō, we come to observe three magnificent gardens, certainly executed by Shūko Kogaku. One of them remains famous for the arrangement of vertical rocks, white sand and vegetation. A corridor divides it in two and allows to meditate on the image of Mount Horai from which springs a waterfall that flows into a river of sand.

Zuiho-in. Founded in 1535, the temple is best known for its stone gardens designed by Mirei Shigemori in the 1960s.

Ryogen-in. Built in 1502, this temple is surrounded by four Zen gardens, including the smallest in Japan.