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Saihō-ji (Moss Temple)

Saihō-ji (Moss Temple)

Musō Soseki

Photo: kajikawa · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Nishikyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Client / Owner
Fujiwara Chikahide
Year
Completed 1339
Access
Tickets required

Saihō-ji in Kyoto was revived as a Zen temple in 1339, when Fujiwara Chikahide, chief priest of Matsunoo Shrine, asked Musō Soseki to restore it. The article names no architect. The infobox gives a legendary founding by Gyōki about 731, the 1339 restoration and a reconstruction from 1969 to 1978. The infobox names Musō for the restoration, while the text also credits Nakahara Morokazu with a Kamakura-period restoration. The infobox puts it in Ukyō-ku, and the text says Nishikyō-ku.

It is a Rinzai Zen temple. A circular moss garden surrounds Golden Pond, which has three islands, and the north has a Zen rock garden, three teahouses and a three-story pagoda from 1978.

Fires struck in 1469 and 1568. The garden opened to the public in 1928, and UNESCO listed it in 1994. Advance reservation is required, the fee is 4,000 yen, and visitors take part in an activity such as zazen or sutra copying.

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