Saihō-ji Temple: Kyoto’s Rinzai Zen Temple and Moss Garden
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Japanese, Toyotomi regime
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page14 sections
History
Saihō-ji Temple is an independent Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, traditionally founded in 731 and popularly known as Kokedera, or “Moss Temple.” Its principal image is Amida Nyorai, the Buddha associated with the Western Pure Land. The temple’s mountain name is Kōinzan, and its history connects Asuka-period traditions, medieval Buddhist institutions, the Muromachi military government, and the garden designer Musō Soseki.
Early Buddhist traditions
Temple tradition places a retreat of Prince Shōtoku at the site during the Asuka period. Prince Shōtoku was an influential early promoter of Buddhism in Japan, and the retreat was said to contain an image of Amida Nyorai carved by the prince. In 731, the monk Gyōki is traditionally believed to have converted the retreat into a temple with the support of an imperial prayer by Emperor Shōmu. Gyōki, a Nara-period monk known for organizing religious communities and temple construction, reportedly established Saihō-ji as one of 49 temples in the Kinai region.
The early temple was associated with the Hossō school of Buddhism and used an earlier written form of the name Saihō-ji. Its principal image of Amida Nyorai was accompanied by Kannon and Seishi Bosatsu. In 806, Prince Shinnyo, a son of Emperor Heizei, was said to have established a hermitage at the site for ascetic practice. Kūkai, founder of the Shingon school, was also traditionally believed to have visited the temple and conducted Japan’s first hōjō-e, a ceremony in which captive animals are released, at the Golden Pond.
Kamakura-period changes
During the Kamakura period, the official Nakahara Morokazu, ancestor of the Settsu clan and governor of Settsu Province, restored the temple. Saihō-ji was then divided into two institutions, Saihō-ji and Onriedo-ji. Hōnen, founder of the Jōdo-shū, or Pure Land, school, later converted the temple into a Jōdo-shū institution. Shinran, who developed the Jōdo Shinshū tradition, was said to have built the Gutokudō Hall and stayed at the temple.
Between 1257 and 1259, Hōjō Tokiyori, the fifth regent of the Kamakura shogunate, built the Ōdō, or Cherry Blossom Hall. The temple entered another period of decline during the Kenmu era, from 1334 to 1338. In 1339, the chief priest of nearby Matsunoo Shrine began a revival and invited Musō Soseki, a Rinzai Zen monk, religious leader, and celebrated garden designer. Musō converted Saihō-ji into a Rinzai Zen temple, reunited Saihō-ji and Onriedo-ji, and created or reorganized the garden.
At the time of this Zen refoundation, the temple’s name received its present written form. The new form was associated with Zen expressions concerning Bodhidharma, including the phrases “Bodhidharma came from the West” and “five leaves joined in fragrance.” The change linked Saihō-ji’s identity to its new Rinzai affiliation.
Muromachi patronage and destruction
In 1342, Emperor Kōgon, the first emperor of the Northern Court, visited Saihō-ji with Ashikaga Takauji, founder and first shogun of the Muromachi shogunate. From the fourteenth century, the temple maintained close ties with the Ashikaga military government, acquired extensive estates, and hosted autumn-leaf-viewing gatherings for Ashikaga shoguns.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu visited in 1382 and practiced overnight meditation in Shitō-an. He later founded Kinkaku-ji partly in imitation of Saihō-ji. Ashikaga Yoshimasa subsequently rebuilt Shitō-an, and elements associated with Saihō-ji and Kinkaku-ji influenced the creation of Ginkaku-ji.
The Ōnin War, a late-fifteenth-century civil conflict that devastated much of Kyoto, brought direct destruction to the temple. Hosokawa Katsumoto’s Eastern Army camped in the temple valley, while the Western Army attacked and burned Saihō-ji in 1469. Flooding caused further damage in 1485, after which Rennyo, a major leader of the Hongan-ji branch of Jōdo Shinshū, was said to have helped restore the temple.
Conflict involving the Yanagimoto clan of Tamba Province caused another fire in 1568. Oda Nobunaga, a major military ruler of the sixteenth century, ordered Sakugen Shūryō of Tenryū-ji to rebuild Saihō-ji.
Edo-period decline and modern recovery
Floods from the Saihō-ji River damaged and impoverished the temple twice during the Edo period, first in the Kan’ei era from 1624 to 1644 and again in the Genroku era from 1688 to 1704. The former dry landscape garden fell into disrepair. The change toward a moss-covered garden appears to have taken place only near the end of the Edo period, influenced by the valley setting beside the river.
In 1862, during the Bakumatsu period, the court noble Iwakura Tomomi lived temporarily in seclusion at Shōnan-tei. After the Meiji government separated Buddhism and Shinto and an anti-Buddhist movement reduced Buddhist institutions, Saihō-ji lost part of its grounds and declined. The temple was restored in 1878.
The garden opened to the public in 1928, but heavy visitation caused disturbances and other problems. General sightseeing ended in 1977, after which visits became subject to advance reservation and participation in religious activities such as sutra recitation and hand-copying. Internet reservations were introduced in 2021.
A concentrated rainstorm on 11 July 1951 caused about 30 ken of earthen boundary wall to collapse and buried the garden’s moss beneath mud. The main hall was rebuilt in 1969, and a three-storied sutra repository was erected in 1978. Saihō-ji was protected as a national historic site in 1923, while its garden became a Special Place of Scenic Beauty in 1952. The temple forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage property Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, inscribed in 1994 under criteria (ii) and (iv). An image of Amida Nyorai kept in a tea house was stolen in April 2015.
Remains
Saihō-ji occupies the mouth of the narrow Saihō-ji River valley. Its grounds are organized around an eastern garden centered on Golden Pond and a northern upper garden containing a dry landscape composition. Together, the gardens combine a pond-and-stroll design with a mountain-slope setting and an elevated arrangement of rocks, paths, and buildings.
Upper and lower gardens
Upper dry landscape garden
The northern upper garden is a karesansui, or dry landscape garden, in which rocks, gravel, and shaped terrain represent natural features without depending on a large body of water. Its principal stone arrangement consists of three levels of waterfall rocks. A formation symbolizing Mount Meru stands before Shitō-an, also called the Founder’s Hall, and a path rises steeply from the Kōjōseki Gate to the garden.
The stone composition is traditionally attributed to Musō Soseki and dated to 1339. It has been described as Japan’s earliest and oldest karesansui stone composition, although both its date and authorship remain disputed. Shitō-an contains memorial tablets for Gyōki, Prince Takaoka, also known as Shinnyo, and Musō Soseki, together with a sculpture of Musō. Shukuentei, a former resting pavilion with views toward the Katsura River area, once stood at the highest point of the grounds.
Golden Pond garden
The lower garden follows a circular promenade around Golden Pond. The pond is also called Shinji-ike because its outline resembles the Chinese character for “heart” or “mind.” Three islands occupy the water: Asahi Island, Yūhi Island, and Kiri Island, also known as Nagashima or Kasumijima. They were laid with white sand, planted with pine trees, and fitted with pavilions.
More than 120 kinds of moss cover the ground around the pond, creating the feature behind the name Kokedera. This growth belongs to a later phase than Musō’s original garden and is associated with the late Edo or Meiji period, including the effects of flooding and the damp conditions of the valley.
Garden structures and surviving buildings
Former pond-side structures
The garden’s original design used both Golden Pond and the mountain slope above it. A path once led from the Zen hall up the mountain to Shukuentei. Beside the pond stood a two-story reliquary hall, whose lower level was called Ruriden. Its design allowed the garden to be viewed from above, contributing to a three-dimensional composition.
Other buildings formerly associated with the pond included Ruriden, Tanhoku-tei, Shōnan-tei, a hermitage, a storage compound, a roofed bridge with a pavilion, and a boat-shaped structure. The garden contained numerous architectural elements in relation to its size.
Tea houses
Surviving tea houses include Shōnan-tei, Shōan-dō, and Tanhoku-tei. Shōnan-tei began as a fourteenth-century structure but was later destroyed and rebuilt. The present building was reconstructed by Sen Shōan, the second son of the tea master Sen no Rikyū, at Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s command around the turn of the seventeenth century. It has a projecting moon-viewing terrace and underwent extensive restoration in 1919.
Shōan-dō was built in 1920 and contains a wooden image of Sen Shōan. The potter Mashimizu Zōroku donated Tanhoku-tei to the temple in 1928.
Main hall and pagoda
The eastern grounds contain the main hall, a study, and a three-storied pagoda. The main hall, Sairai-dō, was rebuilt in 1969 to designs by Jirō Murata, a professor at Kyoto University. Its exterior uses shinden-zukuri, the residence style associated with Heian-period aristocrats, while its interior reflects Kamakura-period shoin architecture, a style developed around formal residential and reception spaces.
Sairai-dō houses an image of Amida Nyorai. Its sliding doors bear colorful abstract paintings by the nihonga artist Inshō Dōmoto. The three-storied pagoda was erected in 1978 to honor Yakushi Nyorai and to store copies of sutras written by Rinzai adherents. Most of the other present buildings date from the Meiji period, especially the 1870s.
Collections and commemorative features
The grounds contain a monument engraved with a haiku by Kyoshi Takahama and a literary monument bearing writings by Jirō Osaragi. Saihō-ji also holds a silk painting of Musō Soseki designated as an Important Cultural Property. Its collections include a manuscript of the Saihō-ji engi, a chronicle of the temple’s origins and history, as well as writings by Musō Soseki, Ingen, and Sakugen Shūryō.
