Kodai-ji Temple
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9 Day Japan Tour: Fixed Departure
Tokyo(3N) → Kyoto(2N) → Osaka(3N)
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Japan 15 Days
Tokyo(5N) → Kyoto(4N) → Osaka(4N) → Hiroshima(1N)
Japan Explorer: 8 Nights Tokyo, Kyoto & Osaka Adventure
Tokyo(3N) → Kyoto(2N) → Osaka(3N)
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Tokyo(4N) → Kyoto(2N) → Osaka(2N)
9-Day Japan Highlights: Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kyoto, and Osaka Adventure
East of Tokyo(3N) → Fujikawaguchiko(1N) → Kyoto(2N) → Osaka...
Japan Highlights: 6 Nights Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kyoto and Osaka Tour
Tokyo(2N) → Kyoto(2N) → Osaka(2N)
"A 1606 Zen temple built by Hideyoshi's widow, known for its rock garden and bamboo grove."
Kodai-ji Temple, Kyoto Overview
Kodai-ji is a Rinzai Zen temple in Kyoto's Higashiyama district, built in 1606 by Kita no Mandokoro (Nene), widow of warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as a memorial to him, with funding from Tokugawa Ieyasu. The grounds include a karesansui rock garden and a pond garden centered on the Kaizando memorial hall, which enshrines wooden statues of Nene and Hideyoshi. A hillside mausoleum decorated with Kodaiji maki-e lacquerwork and two teahouses, one attributed to tea master Sen no Rikyu, overlook a bamboo grove path leading back to the main halls.
Kodai-ji sits between Yasaka Shrine and Kiyomizudera in Higashiyama, on grounds Hideyoshi's widow established as his memorial. The main hall was rebuilt in a simpler style after a 1912 fire, but the Kaisando hall, the Otamaya mausoleum, and two hillside teahouses survive from the original construction. Its garden, a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty, pairs a raked-gravel rock garden with a pond and maple trees that color in late November. The Kodai-ji Sho Museum displays lacquer artwork and temple treasures nearby, and the subtemple Entokuin adds two more gardens. Evening illuminations run in spring and autumn; admission is 600 yen and the temple has no fixed closing days.
