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Nanzen-ji Temple - 南禅寺 (built 1290 onward)

Nanzen-ji Temple (Southern Mountain Temple) is the headquarters of the Zen-shu sect the Rinzai school of Buddhism. Its origins date back to reign of Emperor Kameyama (r. 1259-74) in the middle Heian period. The Emperor had established a detached palace on site during his reign and retired here in 1274, but the palace was reportedly plagued with ghosts. Various incantation methods were tried in an effort to exorcise the malign spirits, but by 1290, the situation had grown so desperate that the Emperor invited Mukan Fumon (1212-91), a Zen monk, to attempt another solution. Mukan arrived with a group of disciples and began his work. Instead of using incantations or other magic to drive away the ghosts, Mukan simply meditated until the ghost vanished. Impressed with Mukan's solution, the Emperor invited him to stay in the lower palace and appointed him the first abbot of the monastery. Although he died less than a year later, Mukan became the first of many abbots to reside at what later became known as Nanzen-ji temple after the Emperor's death.

Nanzen-ji's future appeared secure in the coming centuries as Zen Buddhism assumed a greater and greater role in Japanese society. By the later 14th century, however, tensions arose between Nanzen-ji and the Tendai sect monks at Mount Hiei. The Tendai sect monks, renowned as warriors, attacked Nanzen-ji in the fall of 1393 and destroyed the temple by arson. Although the temple recovered, it suffered another devastating fire in the mid 14th century. Scarcely had it been rebuilt again before it succumbed once more to fire during the devastating Onin wars in 1467.

The temple did not fully recover until the end of the 16th century when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the unifier of Japan, rebuilt the temple and dedicated a new Butsu-den (Buddha Hall). Although Hideyoshi's reign was brief, the Togukawa dynasty that succeeded him proved favorable to Nanzen-ji as well. Todo Takatora, a Japanese daimyo who had fought in the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 alongside Togukawa Ieyesu, constructed the Sanmon gate at Nanzen-ji in 1628. The gate was dedicated to all those who had fought and died in the civil war leading to Togukawa's assession. However, the gate is more popularly known for its associations with Ishikawa Goemon (1558-94), a legendary Robin Hood-like figure who attempted to assassinate Hideyoshi. According to the kabuki play "The Golden Gate and the Paulownia Crest", Goemon was sitting atop the gate when he learned that his father, a Chinese native named So Sokei, had been killed by Hideyoshi. The news stirred him to make an attempt on Hideyoshi's life. When he arrived at Hideyoshi's chamber, a magical incense burner alerted the guards to his arrival (other folk sources indicate that a toppling bell broke his cover, or a songbird that he had stolen). He was executed along with his entire family by being burned alive in a tub of oil, but he managed to save his young son by holding him above the liquid. To this day, old-fashioned Japanese tubs are called goemonburo in honor. As interesting as the legend is, it is anachronistic as the gate was not built until a generation after his death.

The Edo Shogunate is also responsible for the abbot's quarters (the Daihojo and smaller Shohojo). The Daihojo, the larger of the two buildings, was presented to the temple as a gift from Tokugawa Ieyasu. It had originally been constructed as a palace for the Emperor under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but Tokugawa Ieyasu, who attempted to erase the legacy of Hideyoshi, donated the palace to Nanzen-ji and ordered a new residence built for the Emperor.

The smaller Shohojo, to the north, dates from the same era and contains the temple's primary gardens. The small kare sansui (dry garden) on the northwest side is attributed to the great garden master Kobori Enshu (1594-1634), though this may be spurious as Kobori Enshu's name has been linked to numerous gardens in the Kyoto area. In any case, the garden is popularly described as the 'Tiger and Cubs' garden, as the arrangement of rocks has been likened to a mother tiger surrounded by her cubs.

The Shohojo's larger garden, to the south, is not considered as artistically refined. In their book, The Gardens of Kyoto, authors Treib and Herman say "It would appear that the garden is in the traditional mode of the dry Zen style, though the large-scale rocks and their placement among the plant material seen almost cumbersome when compared with the refined Zen gardens of the earlier Muromachi and Momoyama periods such as may be seen at Daitoku-ji or Ryoan-ji."