Kanchi-in, a sub-temple of To-ji, was built in 1308 by order of emperor Gouda, along with 20 other sub-temples. It is the most important sub-temple of To-ji, and one of the very few ones to have survived. Most of current buildings are from 1605. The temple has many important cultural properties of Japan. The sliding doors and tokonoma paintings of Miyamoto Musashi even have the higher rank of national treasure.
The dry landscape garden of this temple has several stone arrangements representing a dragon, a ship, a turtle, a flying fish, etc. It is one of the few gardens where you can actually guess what the stone represent! The sand patterns are also quite geometric and unique. Kanchi-in has a few other gardens squeezed between buildings, including a very small one of only a couple of square meters. North of the compound is a tea room with views on more small zen gardens.
Kanchi-in can only be visited a few months per year, in autumn and spring. Recommended for: Access: 500 円 Nearby: Rokunomiya-jinja 六孫王神社 (310m), Hiun-kaku 飛雲閣 (1km), Nishi Hongan-ji 西本願寺 (1km), Kyōto Station 京都駅 (1.1km), the Kyōto Tower 京都タワー (1.1km), the Sumiya 角屋 (1.2km), Watchigai-ya 輪違屋 (1.2km) External links: Website, Kyoto Navi, Kyoto Design, 京都風光, Satellite view, Map Keywords: Japan, 日本, Japon, Kyoto, 京都, 下京, 中京, 上京, To-ji, temple, UNESCO world heritage, 寺院, 仏閣, 観智院, Kanchi-in, subtemple, 塔頭 Statistics: visited on 3 occasions, id 445, 8 photos (7 extra photos can be found in the archive). |
