Kennin-ji

photo by 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0

On the ceiling of the Dharma hall, twin dragons painted in 2002 across 108 tatami.

You come in from the back of Gion and the noise of the street stops at once. You sit on the veranda in front of the dry landscape garden of the abbot's quarters and stay there: it is one of the few temples in Kyoto where the visit consists of keeping still. In the Dharma hall, by contrast, you look up, towards the twin dragons painted on the ceiling in 2002.

It is the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto (Zen is the Buddhist school that puts seated meditation at the centre) and it takes up an entire block behind the Gion district. The folding screens of Fūjin and Raijin, the wind god and the thunder god, have moved to the Kyoto National Museum: the ones you see in the temple are reproductions.

ℹ️ ¥800 adults, ¥500 from elementary school to high school, free below elementary school age and for those with a disability certificate; groups of fifteen people give ten days' notice. ⚠️ It opens at 10:00 and admission closes at 16:30: it opens later than all the temples around it, so it does not fit into a morning at Kiyomizu. The website lists prohibitions concerning bicycles, photography and groups. It is all under cover: the card to play when it rains. ⚠️ The website announces a change to the fees: ¥800 is the figure published today. Closing days not stated.

🚉 Kyoto Kawaramachi · 9 min walk

Sources: kenninji.jp

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