Kennin-ji Audio Guide

Kennin-ji: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Kennin-ji

   Welcome to Kennin-ji, written 建仁寺 in Japanese. It sits in the Higashiyama ward of Kyoto, in the Gion district, looking toward the Kamo River on the city's eastern side. Step in from the lively streets nearby and you enter one of the most historic Zen temples in Japan. This is a Rinzai Zen temple, and it is the head temple of its own branch of that tradition. It is known as the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, and it has carried the Zen teachings forward for around 800 years. In this guide we will look at who founded it, where it stood among Kyoto's great Zen temples, and the art that gives it such presence, from a thundering pair of dragons overhead to a famous pair of wind and thunder gods.

2. 02

   Kennin-ji and the Founding of 1202

   Kennin-ji was founded in 1202. Its founding priest was Myōan Eisai, who lived from 1141 to 1215, and his name is bound to the temple's story. Because Zen temples in Kyoto began here, Kennin-ji is called the earliest of the city's Zen temples. There is also a patron in the story. The temple's founder in the formal sense, the one who backed its creation, was Minamoto no Yoriie, while Eisai is honored as its founding priest. The main object of worship is an eleven-faced Kannon, a form of the compassionate bodhisattva shown with many faces. The mountain name of a Japanese Buddhist temple is a traditional title, and Kennin-ji's is Tōzan, which simply means East Mountain, a fitting name for a temple on Kyoto's eastern side.

3. 03

   Kennin-ji Among the Kyoto Gozan

   Kyoto had a ranking of its leading Zen temples, known as the Kyoto Gozan, the five most important Zen temples of the city. Kennin-ji belongs to that elite group, and it held the third position. That is why you will often hear it described as a temple of great standing. Today it is the head temple of the Kennin-ji branch of Rinzai Buddhism, which means it stands at the center of a whole family of temples that share its lineage. Rank and lineage together explain why a place so close to Gion's busy lanes carries such weight in Japanese religious life. As you walk, keep in mind that the quiet you feel here belongs to a tradition that has been preserved for centuries, in a neighborhood that is now one of the liveliest in Kyoto.

4. 04

   Dragons and Thunder Gods at Kennin-ji

   Look up, because one of the temple's most striking works is overhead. In 2002, to mark the temple's 800th anniversary, a ceiling painting of two dragons by the artist Koizumi Junsaku, who lived from 1924 to 2012, was installed. The work was first painted in the sports hall of a former elementary school, which gives you an idea of its scale. The dragon here symbolizes the rain of Buddhist teachings, falling on all who listen. Shōkoku-ji, another Kyoto temple, also has a dragon on the ceiling of its main hall. Kennin-ji also holds notable paintings by Tamura Sōryū and Hashimoto Kansetsu. Then there is the temple's most famous artistic link: Fujin and Raijin, the wind god and the thunder god, painted on a pair of two-fold screens by Tawaraya Sōtatsu. They are shown at the Kyoto National Museum. Raijin, on the left, is the god of lightning, thunder and storms in Shinto and Japanese mythology. So even if you cannot see the screens here, the temple's name is tied to one of Japan's most beloved pairs of images.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Kennin-ji gives you a lot to hold in your mind at once: a founding in 1202, a priest named Eisai, a place among Kyoto's five great Zen temples, and a pair of dragons painted for an anniversary only a little more than two decades ago. As you move through, notice how quickly the noise of Gion fades. Notice, too, how art from very different centuries shares the same Zen setting, from the old wind and thunder gods to the modern dragons. Let your eyes wander upward as well as ahead, and see what new details the temple offers you.