Nishi Hongan-ji

Nishi Hongan-ji, formally Hongwanji, is the head temple of the Hongwanji branch of Jodo Shinshu, the school founded by Shinran. It began in 1272, ten years after Shinran's death, as a mausoleum built with the help of his followers at Otani in Kyoto's Higashiyama, and from around 1321 it took the name Hongwanji. After being destroyed by the monks of Mount Hiei and surviving years of warfare, it moved to Yamashina, to Ishiyama in Osaka and elsewhere, and in 1591 settled at its present site at Rokujo Horikawa under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's plan for the city of Kyoto. It was registered as a World Heritage site in 1994.

Eight National Treasure buildings stand on the grounds. Many halls were lost in the great earthquake of 1596 and a fire in 1617, and the Founder's Hall, or Goeido, was rebuilt in 1636. It is a huge hall, 48 meters east to west, 62 meters north to south and 29 meters high, with a wooden statue of Shinran at its center. The Amida Hall was fully rebuilt in 1760 to replace a temporary hall. It measures 42 meters east to west, 45 meters north to south and 25 meters high, and enshrines a wooden statue of Amida Buddha at its center. The two halls are joined by a corridor.

On the verandas and corridors of both halls you can find umeki, wooden patches shaped like fish, eggplants, sake flasks and other things, set into knotholes and cracks. The rainwater basins on either side of the front of the Founder's Hall have been held up by eight small demon figures called amanojaku since the hall was rebuilt in 1636. In the northeast corner of the grounds stands the drum tower, said to still bear sword cuts made by the Shinsengumi, and the grounds also hold a great ginkgo about 400 years old, designated a natural monument by the City of Kyoto.

The National Treasure Karamon Gate is a four-legged gate with a cypress-bark roof and curved karahafu gables, covered in lavish Momoyama-period carvings. It is also called the Higurashi Gate, the gate where you forget the sun is setting. The Shoin, made up of the Taimenjo and the White Shoin, is a leading example of the shoin style that developed in the Momoyama period, decorated with gold-ground wall paintings and carvings. The Taimenjo is also called the Room of the Swan Goose after the openwork carving in its transom, and its lower level spans 162 tatami mats. The Kuro-shoin and Connecting Corridor of 1657 are built in the relaxed sukiya style and hold ink paintings by Kano Tan'yu. The North Noh Stage north of the Shoin is said to have carried an inscription dated 1581 and is the oldest Noh stage in existence.

The Hiunkaku Pavilion, standing over the pond of the Tekisuien garden in the southeast corner of the grounds, is a three-story pavilion counted with Kinkaku and Ginkaku as one of the three famous pavilions of Kyoto. Each story is smaller than the one below and its center shifts to the east, giving an asymmetrical form. It is normally closed to the public. Four times a day the temple runs Get to Know Onishi-san, a guided tour of the grounds led by its monks, which anyone can join without booking.