Kodai-ji Temple and the Path of Nene

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Kodai-ji Temple was built in 1606 by the lawful wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nene, to memorize her husband Hideyoshi’s spirit. The path of Nene is a stone-paved path stretching north to south on the west side of Kodai-ji Temple (a length being about 460 meters from the south side of Maruyama Park to the approach of Ryozenkannon Shrine). This area is near Heian-jingu Shrine and Maruyama Park, and many domestic and foreign tourists visit the area. A long time ago, I saw the sign “Kodai-ji Temple” and many sightseeing buses parked around there, so I decided to go to the temple sometime. Honestly speaking, when I saw the sign, I thought that the temple was Kozan-ji Temple, which is famous for Choju Jinbutsu Giga (the illustrated handscrolls of frolicking animals and humans) by mistake, and I was surprised that the temple was in such a town though I thought it was in the middle of a mountain. I checked it out after that, and confirmed that the Kozan-ji Temple is in the middle of a mountain as I thought. I’m going to go to Kozan-ji Temple sometime, and I’ll report you about the temple here then.

I went to Kodai-ji Temple from Maruyama Park in the south direction on the Path of Nene. I’ll introduce Kodai-ji Temple and the Path of Nene below.
(The line with arrows is the Path of Nene.)

Precincts of Kodai-ji Temple

Kodai-ji Temple is a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism, and is dedicated to Gautama Buddha. As described above, this temple is the family temple of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Nene, and the temple name “Kodai-ji Temple” is derived from the title of respect of Nene, “Kodai-in” that Nene named herself after entering into Buddhist priesthood. The temple, accordingly, has an aspect as a mausoleum as well as an aspect as a Zen temple. The pair of Hideyoshi and Nene married for love, which was rare at their time, and were close to each other until their later years. It was said that Nene visited Kodai-ji Temple every day from her residence (Entokuin Temple) after Hideyoshi died.
The temple has a hojo (main hall) at the center, and a kuri (temple kitchen) on the west side of the hojo and a Japanese garden having two ponds of Engetsu-chi and Garyo-chi on the east side of the hojo. The precincts have an area of about 40,000 square meters, and when entering the garden, I thought how large the garden was! The area of the garden was about 8 times (about 320,000 square meters) of the current area at the beginning. There are buildings designated as a national Important Cultural Assets including Kaizan-do Hall and Otama-ya Hall in the precincts.
Kaizan-do Hall has stood from the beginning and was Nene’s private Buddhist hall. A small building on a passage with a roof, extending from Kaizan-do Hall, is Kangetsudai, which was moved from Fushimi Castle by Nene. It was loved by Hideyoshi and Nene admired the moon from there. Otama-ya Hall (a mausoleum) in which Hideyoshi and Nene are deified stands on the upland of the garden. The interior of the mausoleum is decorated with the Momoyama style makie (Japanese lacquer sprinkled with gold or silver powder, the makie in Kodai-ji Temple being called “Kodai-ji Makie”). The Momoyama-style is characterized by a luxurious and decorative style. Kaizan-do Hall and Otama-ya Hall are connected with each other through a stair passage called Garyo-ro, which has a roof and stands on a rising ground. These buildings have stood from the beginning and are designated as National Important Cultural Assets. Although all of them are in very exquisite taste, they, particularly the passages, have been exposed to wind and rain for a long period of time, and so they seem to be badly damaged (I saw posts of “No Entry”). There are two Japanese tea-ceremony houses, named “Kasa-tei” and “Shigure-tei”, which were moved from Fushimi Castle on the upland in the west side of the garden. Kodai-ji Temple has other tea-ceremony houses, for example, Iho-an and Onigawara-no-seki, in addition to the two tea-ceremony houses described above, from which we can understand the great influence of Sen-no-Rikyu in this period. The bamboo forest in the precincts created a wonderful atmosphere which stands up to that of the bamboo forest in Arashiyama.

Entrance of Kodai-ji Temple

Hojo

Hojo

Naka-mon Gate

Kaizan-do Hall

Ceiling of Kaizan-do Hall

Otama-ya Hall

Otama-ya Hall

Gayu-ro Passage

Kaizan-do and Otama-ya

Tea Ceremoney House, Kasa-tei

Passage linking two tea ceremoney houses

Bamboo Forest
Tea Ceremony House, Iho-an

Kuri (Temple Kitchen)

Hojo

Garden in Hojo

Japanese Garden

Kaizando Hall and Garyu-chi Pond

Interior Decoration of Kaizan-do Hall

Otama-ya Hall

Kangetsu-dai

Garyu-ro, Otama-ya, and Garyu-chi

Kangetsu-dai, Kaizando, and Otama-ya

Tea Ceremoney House, Shigure-tei

Bamboo Forest

Bamboo Forest

Red Seal of Kadai-ji Temple

Path of Nene
The entrance to Kodai-ji Temple, other temples and shrines, cafés featuring Japanese-style sweets, Japanese-style restaurants, and Japanese-style hotels are clustered and jinrikisha (rickshaws) and people in kimono come and go along the stone-paved path, the Path of Nene. Although the path was called “Kodai-ji Temple Road” until recently, the name of the road was changed after the road improvement. The path extends from north to south starting from Maruyama Park, and if you go further toward the south, you can reach Kiyomizu Temple. The path of Nene is one of the most famous and popular strolling areas, which is awash with domestic and foreign tourists throughout the year. I went back on the Path of Nene and walked to Yasaka-jinja Shrine and then Gion-Shijo.