Shisen-dō

photo by くろふね · CC BY 3.0

It closes only one day a year, 23 May: the anniversary of the man who built it for himself.

You sit on the edge of the open room and watch the garden descend in terraces of azaleas clipped into domes. High up along the walls are the portraits of thirty-six Chinese poets. Every so often there is a sharp knock: it is the *shishi-odoshi*, a bamboo tube that fills with water, tips over and strikes a stone, invented to scare off wild boar.

Ishikawa Jōzan (1583–1672), a samurai turned man of letters, built it as his retreat in 1641 on the slope east of Kyoto; the temple today speaks of ‘three hundred and eighty years’. The name, ‘the hall of the immortal poets’, comes from the portraits of thirty-six Chinese poets hung high up along the walls of the main room. Its full name is Shisen-dō Jōzan-ji.

ℹ️ ¥700 adults, ¥500 high school students, ¥300 elementary and junior high school students and disability certificate holders. Open 9:00–17:00, admission closes at 16:45. ⚠️ It closes only one day a year: 23 May, the anniversary of the founder's death. From the ‘Ichijōji Sagarimatsu-chō’ bus stop it is seven minutes on foot heading east; from ‘Ichijōji’ station on the Eizan Railway, fifteen.

🚉 Ichijoji · 11 min walk

Sources: kyoto-shisendo.net · ja.kyoto.travel

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