Daitokuji

Daitokuji is not one temple but a walled quarter: a main compound founded in 1315 with more than twenty subtemples built around it by patrons over the centuries, connected by gravel lanes behind white walls. Most are closed to visitors permanently, four or five are open year-round, and a handful open for short seasons - which one you can enter changes, so check on arrival rather than planning around a particular garden. Daisen-in has a famous dry landscape reading as a river running from mountains to a sea of gravel; Ryogen-in has five small gardens including one of the smallest in Japan; Koto-in is approached along a maple avenue; Zuiho-in has a twentieth-century garden by Shigemori Mirei with stones set as a cross, for a Christian daimyo. The temple's association with the tea master Sen no Rikyu runs through the whole compound.

History

The temple was founded by the Zen monk Shūhō Myōchō, who lived from 1282 to 1337 and received the title Daitō Kokushi from Emperor Go-Daigo. In 1432 its 26th abbot, Yoso Soi, took it out of the Five Mountain system, and from 1474 the head priest Ikkyū Sōjun, with help from the merchants of Sakai, rebuilt it after repeated fires (Wikipedia, Daitoku-ji).

What to look for

• A walled quarter - more than twenty subtemples on gravel lanes behind white walls.
• Different gardens each - dry landscapes ranging from the fifteenth century to the twentieth.
• Zuiho-in's cross - stones set in a cross by Shigemori Mirei for a Christian daimyo.
• The Rikyu connection - the tea master's history threaded through the compound.

When to go

All year; late November for Koto-in's maples. Half a day.

Practical notes

Most subtemples are permanently closed and which are open changes - do not plan around one. Each open subtemple charges separately. Koto-in prohibits photography inside. There is little English explanation anywhere.

Nearby

Kinkakuji is west; the Nishijin weaving district is south.

Key facts