The story of Higashi-Honganji starts in 1272 when the founder of the Shin sect of Buddhism was enshrined here by its daughter and followers. The sect grew in importance rapidly. In 1602 it was split in two by shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to cut down its power. Tokugawa offered a piece of land to each half; one became Higashi-Honganji, the other is the nearby Nishi-Honganji.
Like its sibling, Nishi-Honganji occupies almost an entire city block. Its two main halls are some of the largest in Japan, and in recent years have been completely repaired. It took 6 years to fix up the northern hall, which was covered by a large metallic cover during the works. In 2009 the huge cover was slid over the southern hall. Around 2013, both halls should be visible together for the first time in 10 years.
Although the grounds of the temple are huge, only the two halls and the front esplanade is open to the public. Access: Nearby: Shōsei-en 渉成園 (350m), the Kyōto Tower 京都タワー (460m), Kyōto Station 京都駅 (540m), Hiun-kaku 飛雲閣 (620m), Nishi Hongan-ji 西本願寺 (640m), Rakutoihōkan 洛東遺芳館 (880m), Byōdō-ji 平等寺 (940m), the Hanbei-fu Bento Museum 半兵衛麩弁当美実館 (980m), Kanshun-dō 甘春堂 (1km), Toyokuni-jinja 豊国神社 (1.2km),... External links: Website, ウィキペディア, Wikipedia, Wikipédia, Kyoto Navi, Trip Advisor, Kyoto Design, 京都風光, Inside Kyoto, Marutake, そうだ京都, Satellite view, Map Keywords: Japan, 日本, Japon, Kyoto, 京都, 下京, 中京, 上京, 東本願寺, Higashi Hongan-ji, temple, 寺院, 仏閣 Statistics: visited on 6 occasions, id 239, 5 photos (7 extra photos can be found in the archive). |
