Kodai-ji - A Widow's Temple

Photo: Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Kyoto: Higashiyama and Gion on Foot, a free self-guided tour.

The long stone steps in front of you climb to Kodai-ji, a temple built out of a widow's devotion. Nene, wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi - the warlord who unified Japan in the late 1500s - founded it in 1606 to pray for her husband, who had died in 1598. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who took power after Hideyoshi, helped pay for it, a generous gesture toward his old rival's widow.

Nene, known after taking vows as Kodai-in, lived her last years just across the lane, and she and Hideyoshi are honored together here. Fires took many buildings, but the Otamaya mausoleum survives, decorated with gold-sprinkled lacquer so fine that Kodai-ji is nicknamed the maki-e temple. The gardens are credited to Kobori Enshu, the great tea master and designer.

Inside (admission charged), a path leads through a small bamboo grove and up past hillside tea houses. The broad lane below, Nene-no-michi, is named for her.

Getting here: Follow Ninenzaka to its end and continue north onto the wide, paved Nene-no-michi; the long stone steps up to Kodai-ji are on your right.

Did you know?: Since 2019, Kodai-ji has had a robot preacher: an android named Mindar, modeled on Kannon, the bodhisattva of mercy, gives talks here on the Heart Sutra.

Photo op: Inside the grounds, the path through the bamboo grove makes a cool green frame; wait for a gap between groups for a clean shot.

More on Wikipedia: Kodai-ji · Kodai-in · Toyotomi Hideyoshi · Kobori Enshu

Kodai-ji - A Widow's Temple

Stops on this tour