Sanpo-in

Sanpo-in, within Daigo-ji in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, is the temple that serves as Daigo-ji's main residence, where successive head priests (zasu) have lived. According to the temple, it was founded in 1115 by Shokaku, the 14th head priest of Daigo-ji. In the Momoyama period, the head priest Gien won the devotion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and used the Daigo Cherry Blossom Viewing as the occasion to revive Daigo-ji. Most of the present buildings are Important Cultural Properties, and of these the Omote Shoin and the Karamon Gate are designated National Treasures. The main precinct with the Five-Story Pagoda and Kondo, and Kami-Daigo, are covered on the Daigo-ji page.

The Omote Shoin is a building facing the garden, and the national cultural properties database dates it to 1598, in the Momoyama period. Although it is a shoin-style building, its veranda is lined with a railing and a pavilion called the Izumi-den is built into its southwest corner, showing how it adopts the shinden style of Heian-period residences. The roof is hip-and-gable with sangawara tiles, and the entrance porch on the west side has a karahafu gable roofed with cypress bark. The rooms are divided into lower, middle and upper rooms, and the lower room is also called the "Agebutai no Ma" because it becomes a Noh stage when the tatami mats are lifted. The middle and upper rooms are one step higher, so Noh and kyogen can be watched from above.

The sliding-door paintings of the Omote Shoin (Important Cultural Properties) take willows of the four seasons as their theme in the upper room and mountain and field scenery in the middle room, and are said to be the work of the Hasegawa Tohaku school. The lower room was painted by Ishida Yutei and shows peacocks and cycad palms. Sanpo-in has other rooms with sliding-door paintings too: the Chokushi no Ma has a Momoyama-period painting of birds and flowers in a bamboo grove said to be by the Tohaku school, the Aoi no Ma shows the Aoi Festival procession heading from Shimogamo Shrine to Kamigamo Shrine, and the Akikusa no Ma shows a wide landscape dotted with the seven autumn flowers.

The Karamon is an imperial messenger's gate whose doors are said to have been opened only when envoys from the imperial court were received. The national cultural properties database dates it to the Momoyama period; it is a flat karamon gate three bays wide with a single doorway, roofed with cypress bark. According to the temple, when it was built the whole gate was lacquered black and its four large chrysanthemum and paulownia crests were covered in gold leaf. Repairs lasting about a year and a half were completed in July 2010 and brought back this appearance, and its bold design conveys the spirit of the Momoyama period.

The Sanpo-in Garden is a national Special Historic Site and Special Place of Scenic Beauty, and Hideyoshi himself drew up its basic design for the Daigo Cherry Blossom Viewing in 1598. According to the temple's events page, for this viewing Hideyoshi planted 700 cherry trees brought from the Kinai region and built the buildings and garden of Sanpo-in. In the pond are the Turtle Island, covered by a five-needle pine said to be more than 600 years old, and the Crane Island just west of it, and at the center of the garden stands the Fujito Stone, which represents the Amida triad. A three-tiered waterfall lies in the southeast corner. The whole garden can be seen from the Omote Shoin. The Junjokan, the Hondo and the Okushinden are not normally open to the public; according to the temple, they are shown during special viewings.