Kōzan-ji

photo by kajikawa · CC BY 3.0

It keeps the frog and rabbit scrolls, which in Japan are called the ancestor of manga.

Fifty-five minutes by bus from Kyoto Station, and then a forest. In the Sekisui-in hall you take off your shoes and sit on the floor facing the garden. The temple holds the *Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga*, four ink scrolls in which frogs and rabbits do the things people do. Outside there is a tea field that the temple states is the oldest in Japan.

A mountain temple in the Takao woods, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It holds the *Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga*, the ‘satirical drawings of animals and people’: four scrolls painted in ink in which frogs, rabbits and monkeys behave like humans, and which in Japan are considered the ancestor of comics. Within the grounds is the tea field that the monk Myōe planted in the thirteenth century with seeds he had received from the monk Eisai, and which the temple states is the oldest in Japan; the tea is picked in mid-May.

ℹ️ Sekisui-in ¥1,000 adults, ¥500 elementary school children, ¥600 for holders of a disability certificate and for school groups; ⚠️ in autumn a ¥500 fee for entry to the grounds is added. Open 8:30–17:00. The car park has fifty spaces and is free except in November. ⚠️ It takes almost an hour by bus: from Kyoto Station, the JR Takao-Keihoku line to the ‘Toganoo’ bus stop, about 55 minutes; from Shijō-Kawaramachi, city bus 8, about 50. ⚠️ That the Sekisui-in hall shows reproductions and not the original scrolls is not stated by the temple: its pages describe the four scrolls and stop there. The fact circulates but has no open source, and until there is one it should not be written on the place page.

🚉 Toganoo · 2 min walk

Sources: kosanji.com · kosanji.com · kosanji.com · kyoto-kosanji.jp

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