Hosen-in

Hosen-in is the temple at the very end of the Ohara approach, past Sanzen-in and the main hall of Shorin-in, and people come here to sit rather than walk. It began about 800 years ago as a monks' lodging of Shorin-in, a center of shomyo Buddhist chanting, and recordings of shomyo play quietly through the rooms. The entry fee includes a bowl of matcha and a sweet, served on tatami facing the Bankan-en garden; the pillars and lintel of the study hall frame the view like a picture, which is why it is called the picture-frame garden. In the middle of the frame stands a five-needle pine about 700 years old, a Kyoto City natural monument said to be shaped like Mount Mikami, the Omi Fuji of Shiga. Then look up in the corridor. The ceiling boards come from Fushimi Castle, where Torii Mototada and hundreds of Tokugawa Ieyasu's men took their own lives in 1600, and the dark marks are their blood. Near the guest hall a suikinkutsu, a buried jar that rings as water drips into it, plays its quiet notes. The temple sets no time limit on sitting, but in maple season the room fills and the calm goes. Most autumns it also holds evening lantern openings with a separate ticket.