Kodai-ji

Kodai-ji sits on the slope above Nene-no-michi, the stone lane between Yasaka Shrine and Kiyomizu-dera, and it exists because of one widow. Nene, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife, known after taking vows as Kodai-in, founded it in 1606 to pray for him, and Tokugawa Ieyasu paid for much of the building for political reasons. She is buried beneath her statue in the Otamaya, the mausoleum hall, where the altar and shrine cabinet are covered in gold-on-black lacquer so typical of the period that similar work is now simply called Kodaiji maki-e. Fires took most of the original temple, but the Kaisando founder's hall, the Otamaya, the gate and two small tea houses, Kasa-tei and Shigure-tei, survive as Important Cultural Properties. The pond garden around the Kaisando is traditionally attributed to Kobori Enshu. The bamboo grove is inside the paid garden, not along the public lane. A stranger stop is Mindar, an android Kannon that recites the Heart Sutra in a hall of its own. Entry is 800 yen, or 1,200 yen with Entoku-in, Nene's former residence just down the slope. During the autumn night opening the gardens are lit from 17:00 and the gate stays open until 22:00 at the daytime price; expect slow, crowded paths.