Shinnyo-dō

photo by Hikomi Moneru · CC BY 3.0

In November you pay twice: ¥500 for the garden, another ¥500 to enter the halls.

You walk up for eight minutes from the bus stop, and the three-storey pagoda appears above the roofs even before the gate. Inside, the dry landscape garden is laid out to have the outline of the thirty-six peaks of Higashiyama behind it: the gravel ends, and the mountain begins. In November there are two ticket desks, one for the garden and one for the halls.

The full name is Shinshō-gokuraku-ji; the name in everyday use is Shinnyo-dō. It stands on the hill east of Kyoto, above the Jōdo-ji neighbourhood and north of the Kurodani. The main hall you see today is a reconstruction from the Edo period, that is, the centuries between 1603 and 1868, and is a national Important Cultural Property; next to it is a three-storey pagoda, visible from afar.

ℹ️ In November and December: ¥500 for the garden and another ¥500 for the interiors. ⚠️ Outside that period the temple does not state the price, nor the opening hours: the only published hours are those of the telephone line, 9:00–16:00 on 075-771-0915. You get off at the ‘Kinrin-shako-mae’ bus stop, on Shirakawa-dōri, and walk up for eight minutes; there is no railway station nearby. Closing days not stated.

🚉 Kinrin Shako-mae · 6 min walk

Sources: shin-nyo-do.jp · shin-nyo-do.jp

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