Kyoto #30: 永観堂【Eikan-do】

Great Touristic Place
Eikan-do in Kyoto.

Old historic buildings blend in with a garden blessed with greenery and water. Scenery of autumn leaves at Eikan-do is famous all over the country, and the beauty of its autumn colors can only be seen here. At Eikan-do, we can find many breathtaking scenery that makes people want to take pictures.

 

Eikan-do

Eikan-do is officially and originally called Zenrin-Ji Temple. It’s the head temple of one of Zen temples, which is located in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City. In the precinct, many awesome buildings are built, and they are connected by a crossing corridor. This corridor is the one you’ve never seen before!! It seems very long and complicated but looks cool as well as buildings!!

 

Walking Through Beautiful Maple’s tunnel…
Eikan-do is surrounded by autumn leaves even from the main gate. It’s free to walk around from So-mon gate to the second gate named Chu-mon gate. Two gates are not so big but we can see the beautiful scenery where those gates are wrapped in autumn leaves, which looks like a leave’s tunnel.

So-mon gate

Chu-mon gate

 

What a great architectures… 
The current Miei-do was built in 1912. This is a Buddhist hall made of total zelkova and is dedicated to the founder of Honen Shonin sect. Some tourists think that this is the main hall, but it is Amida-do as the main hall.

Amida-do

 

Amida-do is located at the back of Miei-do in the precinct. The temple treasure Mikaeri Amida statue, which is a special statue of Amida that we can only see there, is enshrined here. The pillars are beautifully painted, and lots of things are drawn on it!! It’s so beautiful that worth to visit and see!!!

Miei-do

 

It’s a multi-treasure pagoda called Taho-do, which is built in the middle of the mountain behind the Eikan-do. We can’t get inside it, but we can get a panoramic view of Kyoto and Eikan-do from there. In addition, in autumn, the entire precinct seems to be wrapped in autumn leaves, so it’s a photo-worthy place.

Taho-do

 

No Two Unique Corridors Are The Same…
Eikan-do is built in the middle of the mountain, so we walk through lots of many stairs and corridors while walking back and forth between many buildings. Among those corridors, Eikan-do has an interesting corridor called Garyu-ro, which is combined with trees skillfully along the slope of the mountain.

Garyu-ro corridor

 

The word “龍”, which means Dragon,  is included in this name because it seems like walking windingly, ups and downs like inside the body of a dragon. I think this is the most interesting things about Eikan-do!! We should look at it in person and try to walk back and forth!!

➡︎Next Page: Must-see magnificent gardens!! Check them out!!