SHINDEN The original Shinden, the main palace structure, was built as a copy in miniature of an Imperial residence, even to the cherry tree on the left and the wild orange tree to the right in front of the building. Originally the forecourt, which holds these two ceremonial trees, was composed of white sand, but the shade from the huge camphor tree within the grounds has led to the sand being covered with cedar moss. Destroyed in the Onin War of the late 1400s, the Shinden was quickly reconstructed. Then, in the 17th century, the daughter of Hidetada, the second Tokugawa Shogun, became a consort of the Emperor Go-Mizu-no-o (reigned 1611–29), and a palatial mansion was built for her at the Imperial Palace. When the structure was no longer used, portions of it were given to various temples, and the unit that came to Shoren-in replaced the Shinden. It became a palace in actuality in 1788 when the Empress Go-Sakuramachi moved here temporarily after the Imperial Palace burned in the Great Temmei Fire of that year. A subsequent fire in 1893 destroyed this building, and two years later the present structure was erected.
An image of Amida found in the altar room of the Shinden, the palace’s main structure.
The present Shinden is enriched with the art of Tosa Mitsunobo (1434–1525) and Kano Eitoku (1543–90) among others. Mitsunobo painted the fusuma in the main entrance while Eitoku is represented in the Royal Messenger Room, both on the west side of the building. The three main rooms of the Shinden face south and have corridors on all sides, the north corridor being internal while the others are on the periphery of the building. You enter the Shinden today from the main entryway to the temple by means of the wood-floored corridor. The interior rooms are tatami-matted, and the first room you come to (the southeast room) is known as the Blue Fudo Room. It has chigaidana (staggered shelves) on the left third of the rear wall while the rest consists of a large tokonoma which has the painting of the blue Fudo, a Buddhist deity. The most impressive Heian period portrait of Fudo, the original painting (now in the Kyoto National Museum) is from the second half of the 11th century and is in color on silk. The Fudo has a blue body with a contrasting orange garment; red flames rise behind his blue body instead of from the normal mandorla (aureole). His left hand holds a sword while his right hand grasps a rope. Before him are his two attendants.
The middle room is the altar room, the rear section having ihai tablets to the memory of the prince abbots of the temple on either side of an Amida image. The third room is called the Pine Beach Room from the painting by Sumiyoshi Gukei of a beach and a pine tree on a gold ground. The cedar doors outside this room have quaint paintings of Gion Festival floats by the same artist. Behind these three rooms is the internal corridor previously mentioned and then a 10-mat room with a kago in it, a large closed palanquin with the Imperial chrysanthemum crest upon it. This heavy vehicle stands out against the background of the white fusuma on three sides of the room, with their paintings of storks among pine and cherry trees. A Kara-mon (Chinese-style gate) entryway to the Shinden is on this west side of the building, and it marks the end of a path from the large Kara-mon gateway in the external wall to the grounds, obviously a former entrance to the Shinden for its Imperial occupants and royal messengers.
The Shijoko-do is a small square building situated behind the Ko Gosho, with Zen-style cusped windows and a pyramidal tiled roof topped with a large flaming jewel such as is found on memorial buildings. This building is the heart of the temple since it holds an image of the Shijoko Buddha. Here, prayers were said for the welfare of the Imperial House and the nation. The roofed corridor that connects the main entranceway with the Ko Gosho and the Shinden leads to a large room from which you can view the Ko Gosho and the gardens. Tea may be obtained here, and a small counter sells guidebooks to the temple as well as small religious articles. The gardens of the Shoren-in are credited to Soami (1472–1523) and Kobori Enshu (1579–1647). Thought to have been created between 1443 and 1489, probably by Soami, the Ryushin Pond and Senshin Waterfall (a three-level stone waterfall that faces the “boat landing stone”) were meant to be viewed from the Ko Gosho. A 13-tiered stone pagoda stands just beyond the pond while a small bridge crosses one end of the water.
The slope of the hill behind the pond is planted with Kirishima azaleas from the mountain of that name. The gardens were damaged in the 1893 fire and were reconstituted in 1909 by Ogawa Jihei. A path leads through the garden, around the lake and up the hillside, passing en route the Kobun-tei, a small building to the north of the pond. Created as a study for the abbot between 1764 and 1771, it has an altar as well as three places in which tea can be made. In the late 18th century, when the Empress Go-Sakuramachi was in residence at the temple, she used the building as a study. It has also has been used as a tea house.
The garden and pond are lovely at all times, but they are particularly attractive in early April when the cherry blossoms cover the trees and again in autumn when the maples brighten the hillside with their gold and red leaves. While they are not part of the garden, the five huge old camphor trees of the Shorenin are notable. Four of these giants are just outside the temple walls while one is next to the Shinden. One of the four “outside” trees is at the entry gate—a gate that was formerly the kitchen gate but now serves as the main entrance to the temple grounds. The long roofed gate to the right of the present entry, above the wide stone steps, was the original entrance to the temple.
2 OKAZAKI PARK CULTURAL CENTER
Leaving the Shoren-in and walking north on Jingu-michi-dori, the next cross street marks the Awata-guchi area, which has been a continuing entryway to Kyoto from the east, and here along Sanjo-dori lay the old Tokaido highway with its flow of traffic to Edo under the Tokugawa Shoguns. Until the end of the 20th century, much of this portion of Kyoto lay beyond the built-up part of the city, and the area was primarily noted for its temples to the east, north and south and for the famous swordsmiths who followed their craft in the vicinity.
In the 1870s, with the Meiji Restoration, the government levied restrictive laws against Buddhist temples and monasteries, and thus much temple land became available in this district for private or civic development. Many estates of wealthy or noble individuals came into being. By the turn of the century, the area north of Sanjo-dori also had its beginning as a cultural center when one of the first public libraries in Japan, the Kyoto Municipal Public Library, was begun in 1872. By 1894 Okazaki Park had been laid out north of Sanjo-dori in conjunction with the Heian Shrine, commemorating the 1,100 years of Kyoto’s life as a city, all but 25 of these years as the Imperial capital of the nation. The partial reconstruction of the original Daigokudan (Great Hall of State of the Imperial Palace) served also as a shrine to the first Emperor to reside in Kyoto as the capital. Nine years later, a portion of the adjacent area became the home of the first municipal zoo.
The two-story Murin-an Villa combines aspects of Western and Japanese architecture.
3 MURIN-AN VILLA
Before heading into the cultural center of Okazaki Park, it is worth turning east at Niomon-dori, one street north of Sanjo-dori, to visit one of the estates that came into being after 1868 when temple lands were confiscated by the Meiji government or when temples had to sell portions of their property to support themselves. Industrialists and government officials were able to obtain land in this area to which Kyoto was just spreading as a city, and one of these fortunate officials was Duke Aritomo Yamagata (1838– 1922), who had been born into a samurai family and who here created his Murin-an Villa. The Murin-an is north of Sanjo-dori and to the south of Niomon-dori just before Shirakawa-dori. Walk two streets east on Niomon-dori from its intersection with Jingo-michi-dori and then turn to the right. The entrance to the Murin-an garden is down the side street on the right. It is open from 9:00 a.m. to noon and from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and the New Year holiday period. Entry fee.
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