Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Kyoto Area > Tenryū-ji Tenryū-ji（天龍寺） The temple was founded by shogun Ashikaga Takauji in 1339, primarily to venerate Gautama Buddha, and its first head priest was Musō Soseki. Construction was completed in 1345. As a temple related to both the Ashikaga family...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Kyoto Area > Sentō Gosho (Sentō Imperial Palace) Sentō Gosho (Sentō Imperial Palace)（仙洞御所） The Sentō Imperial Palace was built in 1630 as Emperor Go-Mizunoo’s retirement residence. Several fires have burnt down the buildings over the time, and the Sentō Imperial Palace was...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Kyoto Area > Ryōgen-in (Daitoku-ji) Ryōgen-in (Daitoku-ji)（大徳寺龍源院） Ryōgen-in is one of Daitoku-ji’s twenty-two sub-temples. It is a rather small temple, but has several superlatives to offer: → One of its gardens (Tōkekiko) is Japan’s smallest garden (supposedly). → Another of its gardens...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Kyoto Area > Ryōan-ji Ryōan-ji（龍安寺） Ryōan-ji is maybe the most famous rock garden of Japan. Ryoan-ji was built on the grounds of a villa of the Fujiwara clan in the Heian period (794-1185). The deputy of the shogun and warlord Hosokawa Katsumoto...Continue Reading
My first trip to Kyoto was back in April 2006. On my list were many famous temples including Daitoku-ji. However, I didn’t visit the Zuiho-in sub-temple back then. In 2014 and 2015, I visited Kyoto again, also Daitoku-ji, but only for special autumn openings and Zuiho-in was not on that...Continue Reading
I got an E-Mail via our Real Japanese Gardens website lately about the small details in Japanese gardens. The writer visited Kyoto and was fascinated by the greater view of the gardens, but when he watched from close, it was far from the perfection he expected. In this E-Mail he...Continue Reading
