Nishi Honganji Audio Guide for Kyoto

Inside this guide

1. 01

   Welcome to Nishi-Hongan-ji, O-Nishi-san

   In 西本願寺, this section highlights Welcome to Nishi-Hongan-ji, O-Nishi-san as a point to understand and notice during the visit.

   Welcome to Nishi-Hongan-ji — or, as most people in Kyoto say it, O-Nishi-san, the western one. You are standing in the head temple of the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji school, a tradition that traces itself back to the thirteenth-century teacher Shinran. Formally this is Ryukoku-zan Hongwanji, and its main object of reverence is Amida Buddha. The address places you in the Kitakojicho neighbourhood of Shimogyo Ward, along the north alleyway, in the middle of a working temple precinct that has been one of Japanese Buddhism's great centres for centuries. One honest note before we start. I will be describing the temple that stands here as a whole, not a single marker on a street, and I will flag anything that is traditionally told rather than documented. That distinction turns out to matter surprisingly often on these grounds — as you will hear in a few minutes. In 1994 this temple was inscribed as part of the World Heritage listing of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. And the nickname is telling: people here have called it O-Nishi-san so long that the everyday name has almost pushed the official one aside. That is a good sign you are somewhere that belongs to the city, not just to its visitors.

2. 02

   A Community That Kept Moving

   In 西本願寺, this section highlights A Community That Kept Moving as a point to understand and notice during the visit.

   The story begins in 1272, in the ninth year of Bun'ei, when Shinran's youngest daughter, Kakushinni, built a mausoleum hall for her father in the Otani district of the Higashiyama hills. From that small memorial grew a movement. The name Hongwanji came into public use around 1321, and the temple's characteristic pair of halls took shape over the following generations: by the time of the seventh head, Zonnyo, a five-bay Founder's Hall stood to the north and a three-bay Amida Hall to the south — an arrangement that still shapes how you meet this place today. In 1457, the eighth head, Rennyo, inherited the dharma lineage at the age of forty-three and turned a modest community into a great one. But scale brought conflict. In 1570 the warlord Oda Nobunaga turned against the Hongwanji, whose network had become a major social force, and the two sides fought the so-called Ishiyama war for eleven years. A settlement came in 1580. The eleventh head, Kennyo, left the Ishiyama stronghold and moved to Sagimori in Kii, then to the Gansenji temple in Kaizuka in Izumi, before Toyotomi Hideyoshi granted land at Osaka Tenma. In 1591, Hideyoshi's grant of temple land brought the community to this site. Then, in 1602, it divided: Kyonyo, supported by Tokugawa Ieyasu, established what became Higashi-Hongan-ji to the east. The names were originally just descriptions of position — the temple further east was nicknamed the eastern one, so this one became the western Hongwanji. Formally, it is simply Hongwanji.

3. 03

   The Shinsengumi Years

   In 西本願寺, this section highlights The Shinsengumi Years as a point to understand and notice during the visit.

   Imagine this precinct in the 1860s, in the last, tense years of the shogunate. In March 1865, the Shinsengumi — the sword-bearing corps tasked with policing Kyoto — relocated their headquarters into the temple grounds, occupying the North Assembly Hall and the drum tower. They stayed until June 1867, and by the accounts preserved here, they made themselves thoroughly at home: drilling in swordsmanship and firearms inside the precinct itself. The temple's response is the detail that stays with you. Rather than simply endure it, the Hongwanji side reportedly covered substantial building costs for a brand new encampment at Fudodo-mura, effectively buying the Shinsengumi's departure. Tradition adds that sword marks cut by the corps still remain inside the drum tower — a claim that is carefully described as something said to be true rather than something verified, so treat it as the building's own legend if you get the chance to look. The geography has changed too. The North Assembly Hall had been rebuilt in the third year of Genbun, 1738. In 1873 it was moved to Kameyama Hontokuji in Himeji, in Hyogo Prefecture, where it serves as that temple's main hall. Its old position on these grounds is now occupied by the Annon Hall, which houses the temple's book centre. A room can leave a place and still carry its history with it.

4. 04

   Rooms, Roofs and a Stubborn Story

   In 西本願寺, this section highlights Rooms, Roofs and a Stubborn Story as a point to understand and notice during the visit.

   Now let's look closely at the architecture. Many of the structures you pass are national treasures, among them the Founder's Hall, the Amida Hall, the Karamon gate and the Hiunkaku pavilion. The Shoin, or study and reception complex, sits southwest of the Founder's Hall and consists of the Taisho reception rooms and the Shiroshoin, or white study — two buildings that were originally separate. It is counted among the representative works of early modern shoin-style architecture, with a gabled irimoya roof of Japanese tiles, roughly thirty-eight and a half meters deep and about twenty-nine and a half meters wide. Here is the story you will hear repeated: that this Shoin incorporates remains of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Fushimi Castle. It is a wonderfully romantic idea, and it circulates widely. But the Japanese-language reference material on this temple calls that a popular misconception, and states that the building was in fact raised by the Hongwanji itself during the Edo period. So you have a textbook case of how a good story outruns its paperwork. Enjoy the rooms — just hold the castle claim loosely. One more layer of modern history. In 1987, the Higashi-Honganji organisation dissolved its incorporated religious body and was renamed Shinshu Honbyo, absorbed directly into the Otani school. Since then, strictly speaking, this is the only temple in Shimogyo that carries the name Hongwanji. The old, informal, direction-based name is the one that stuck.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   In 西本願寺, this section highlights Before You Head Off as a point to understand and notice during the visit.

   Before you move on, try one small experiment. Stand where you can see the two main halls together, north and south, and remember that this pairing was settled centuries ago by the seventh head, Zonnyo — five bays to the north, three to the south. It is the same idea you are looking at now, carried across war, fire, relocation and a family split. Then consider how much of what surrounds you is a matter of degree: the names Nishi and Higashi were never formal titles but compass directions that hardened into identity. The Shinsengumi were tenants who had to be paid to leave. The Shoin's most famous origin story is, on the evidence, probably not true. History is rarely tidy, and that is precisely why it is worth standing here a little longer. Later, if you find yourself near the drum tower, or wondering who else has crossed these stones over seven hundred years, you will be asking exactly the right question. This place rewards the curious more than the quick.