Yasaka Pagoda Audio Guide

Hōkan Temple: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Hōkan Temple

   Welcome to Hōkan Temple, known in Japanese as 法観寺. It sits in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto, in the neighborhood called Yasaka Kami Cho. Look up and you will understand why this corner of the city feels so photogenic. The five-story pagoda rising above the narrow streets is the symbol of Higashiyama, and everyone calls it the Yasaka Pagoda. This guide sticks to what is firmly known: the temple's long story, the pagoda's turbulent past, and its form. The temple belongs to the Kennin-ji branch of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. Its mountain name is Reiozan, and its main object of worship is a group of Buddhas called the Five Wisdom Buddhas. The grounds are a designated historic site of Kyoto City. Here is the headline. Hōkan Temple was founded in the Asuka period, which makes it one of the oldest temples in all of Kyoto. In ancient times it was known as Yasaka Temple. Let's start with how it all began.

2. 02

   Hōkan Temple and a Prince's Dream

   Every old temple likes a founding story, and this one has a good one. Tradition says that Prince Shotoku built the temple after a dream. In that dream, the bodhisattva Nyoirin Kannon gave him instructions. Legend dates the founding to the year 592. What makes the tale striking is the timing. The tradition places the temple before the capital moved to Kyoto in the Heian era. So while the city around you is famous for its later centuries of court life, this hillside temple is said to be older than the city's status as the capital. Treat the prince and the dream as tradition rather than proven fact. What is firmly established is that the temple dates from the Asuka period and counts among Kyoto's very oldest. That early age is also why it carried the name Yasaka Temple in antiquity. The name still echoes in the pagoda's nickname today, Yasaka no To, the Pagoda of Yasaka.

3. 03

   Fire, Lightning and Rebuilding at Hōkan Temple

   The pagoda you see is a survivor of repeated disasters. Late in the Heian period, an earlier pagoda burned during a bitter struggle between Kiyomizu Temple and the Gion shrine, which today is Yasaka Shrine. It was rebuilt in 1191. Then the sky took its turn. In 1291, lightning destroyed the tower again. In 1309, with the help of Emperor Go-Uda, it rose once more. A tall wooden tower on a hillside is an easy target for both storms and flames. The story reaches the present form in the fifteenth century. A fire destroyed the pagoda in 1436, and in 1440 the shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori backed its reconstruction. That is the tower standing in front of you now. Its date is given as the twelfth year of the Eikyo era. So when you look at it, you are seeing a structure raised in 1440 after generations of loss and renewal.

4. 04

   Reading the Pagoda at Hōkan Temple

   Let's look at the tower itself. It stands 46 meters tall and measures 6.4 meters on each side. It is roofed in traditional fired clay tile, and its design is in the Wayo style, the classic Japanese approach to temple architecture. The tower is not only a view from the outside. The interior of the first floor can be seen, along with the second floor, so you can step closer to the structure that normally only appears in photographs. The setting matters too. The pagoda is near Ninenzaka, one of the lanes that give Higashiyama its atmospheric, old-Kyoto character. Notice how the tower appears and disappears between rooftops as you stroll the slopes. That glimpse of the five tiers framing a narrow street is why this pagoda became the district's best-known landmark.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Here is something to carry with you. Within a few steps of this tower, you can hold three timescales in mind at once: a temple tradition reaching back to the Asuka period, a pagoda rebuilt in 1440, and the modern lanes of Higashiyama that frame it. As you wander on, try to find the tower from different angles. See how it rises behind rooftops, how it looks from the slopes, and how its five tiers change with the light. Each viewpoint tells a slightly different story about a monument that fire and lightning could not erase for good. And keep a question in mind: which of the tower's many lives, from the legend of the dream to the shogun's rebuilding, speaks to you most?