Ninna-ji

Ninna-ji is the head temple of the Omuro school of Shingon Buddhism, located in the Omuro area of Ukyo Ward, Kyoto. According to the temple, in 886 Emperor Koko vowed to build a temple called Nishiyama Gogan-ji, but he died the following year. Emperor Uda carried on his wish and completed it in 888, naming it Ninna-ji after the era name. Uda gave up the throne in 897, later took Buddhist vows and became the first head of Ninna-ji, and members of the imperial family went on to serve as its abbots for generations. From the Heian to the Kamakura period it is said to have held the highest rank among temples headed by imperial abbots.

In the Onin War, which began in 1467, nearly the whole temple was destroyed by fire. The principal image, an Amida triad, and other treasures were moved to Shinko-in, one of its sub-temples, and kept safe. The chance to rebuild came in 1634, when Kakushin, the 21st head and an imperial prince, asked the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, to restore the temple and won his approval. This happened to coincide with the rebuilding of the imperial palace, so many palace buildings, including the Shishinden (now the Kondo) and the Seiryoden (now the Mieido), were granted to the temple, and the rebuilding of the temple halls was finished in 1646. In 1994 Ninna-ji was inscribed as a World Heritage Site as part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

The National Treasure is one building, the Kondo (Golden Hall). It is the Shishinden hall of the imperial palace built in the Keicho era and moved here in the Kan'ei era (1624 to 1643), and the temple describes it as the oldest surviving Shishinden. National records date it to 1613 in the Momoyama period: a single-story hall seven bays wide and five bays deep, with a hip-and-gable roof of hongawara tiles, designated a National Treasure in 1953. Inside are the principal Amida triad along with statues of the Four Heavenly Kings and Bonten, and the walls are painted in rich colors with scenes of the Pure Land and images of Kannon.

The grounds begin at the Nio Gate, 18.7 meters tall, which faces the street. The temple notes that while the gates of Chion-in and Nanzen-ji from the same period were built in the Zen style, the Nio Gate keeps entirely to the Japanese style handed down from the Heian period. Past the Middle Gate, at the heart of the temple compound, stands the five-story pagoda, built in 1644 and 36.18 meters tall overall. West of the bell tower, the Mieido was built using part of the Seiryoden, and even the metal fittings of its lattice shutters came from that hall.

In spring, a grove of late-blooming, low-growing cherry trees known as the Omuro cherries flowers across the area west inside the Middle Gate. According to the temple, they are at their best in mid-April. In the palace area are the Shinden hall, completed in 1914, and the North Garden with a view of the pagoda, and the Reihokan, which displays and preserves the temple's treasures. Walking slowly from the Nio Gate to the palace buildings, with the Kondo at the center, makes clear how the temple was restored by taking over buildings from the imperial palace.