Beautiful Zen temple with clean wooden architecture and a well-balanced rock garden. Atmosphere calm and structured.
To see the famous Twin Dragon ceiling painting you need to pay the inner area entrance fee I skipped it this time.
Still worth visiting for the overall setting and Zen aesthetics.
Visited this beautiful temple during my two week stay in Japan. I recommend to everyone! I was in awe with the art and there is a a part of the temple where you must remove your shoes and wear red slippers given to you at the entrance. I heard this so to preserve the flooring and wood walkways. It was gracefully quiet even with other tourists around. Everyone respected the space. Costs about 1,000-1200 yen to enter at the main corridor. Also some areas do not allow photos and security enforced this.
Absolutely underrated place that I don't see a lot of people talking about. The best time to visit is during autumn where the zen garden takes on a beautiful shade of red and orange.
Note that photography are only allowed in certain parts of the temple.
There are four main attractions that makes this temple worth a trip:
1) Fujin and Raijin Two Fold Screen
- although a replica (original in Kyoto National Museum), it's still nice to appreciate the artwork close up.
2) Chountei Zen Garden
- this garden is magnificient with the red autumn leaves under the sun, very peaceful and beautiful
3) o△□ Garden
- we jokingly called this garden the "squid game garden", tho the signs represent fire, earth, and water, fundamental forms of the universe in Zen
4) Twin Dragons
- A super epic ceiling painting
Definitely put this place in your itinerary when you visit in autumn!
Beautiful gardens and if you enter via the Southern gate the side of the temple complex comes as a pleasant surprise. The dragon ceiling is impressive and the zen garden area probably the highlight. The temple with blue dragon just off of the Bamboo forest in North Tokyo is probably more impressive but the grounds here at Kenninji are bigger.
Kennin‑ji is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Zen sect, founded in 1202. With its ceiling covered by an impressive ink painting of two giant dragons and its beautifully designed interior gardens, the temple is also home to the famous painted screen depicting the gods of wind and thunder — a work reproduced throughout Kyoto. The Chō’ontei Garden, known as the “Garden of the Sound of the Tide,” is a serene and elegant Zen garden tucked behind the main hall of Kennin‑ji. Truly beautiful. Highly recommend.
