Historic Site, Place of Scenic Beauty, Natural MonumentJoruriji Temple Garden

Joruriji Temple Garden

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By the mid-11th century, the area that today forms the garden of Joruriji Temple had become a gathering place for monks. They would meet in this location, on the banks of a natural spring, to discuss the establishment of temple buildings, after the trainee monk Gimyo set up a hermitage among the hills in the western part of Odawara.
It was Eshin, a member of the Fujiwara clan and abbot of Kofukuji Temple, who expanded the spring at this location into a garden pond and landscaped the garden. After retreating from the Nanto capital to this area, Eshin established Joruriji Temple as a prayer site for Ichijo-in of Kofukuji Temple. At this time he set the boundaries of the temple, widened the pond, arranged landscaping stones, and created a central island in the pond.
In 1157, he moved the main hall to the west bank and developed a pebbled beach by the pond in front of the main hall, enabling worship of the Amitabha from the opposite bank.
Subsequently, the three-storied pagoda was relocated from Kyoto, and the deities of Hakusan and Kasuga were enshrined as the tutelary deities.
In 1205, a monk called shonagon-hogen (hogen-rank monk from a family of third-rank councilor) visited from Kyoto to create stone arrangements inside the tower gates and to add to the pebbled beach by setting stones to mimic rocky coastal scenery.
Over time the garden continued to be developed, including the placement of a washbasin inscribed with “1296 (Einin 4)” in front of the main hall. This created a so-called Pure Land garden, with the main hall and nine Amitabha statues enshrined to the west, and the three-storied pagoda with a Yakushi Nyorai statue to the east.
The path connecting the main hall and the pagoda was designed to represent the White Path towards the Paradise between Two Rivers of Rage and Greed; a Pure Land Buddhist metaphor indicating faith in Amiitabha while evoking the scenery of the Pure Land in the West.
In the Edo period, a pent roof was added to the front of the main hall, and the beach shore was covered to make a strolling path around the pond for worshippers.
This new garden style was depicted in the Supplemental Pictorial Guide to Scenic Spots in Kyoto and has been designated as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty.

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Sacred Site: MinamiyamashiroTono-no-sato

Joruriji Temple is located in the hilly region at the border of Kyoto Prefecture and Nara Prefecture. Historically, this area was a sacred site where monks from great temples in Nara, such as Kofukuji and Todaiji, would retreat from the world for self-cultivation and study. It is said that the name "Tono" derives from the area's ancient scenery, when three-storied pagodas, thirteen-tiered stone pagodas, and Gorinto pagodas clustered across the landscape forming the appearance of a mountain ridge, so that the place was referred to as the Ridge of Pagodas, or tono. Tono remains a historically rich area today, with the remains of Zuiganji Temple and numerous stone Buddhist statues dotted around scenic villages and the surrounding fields, forests, and mountains.

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Zuigan-ji Temple

A branch temple of Kofukuji, it was destroyed by fire during the Kamakura period (1185–1333). It was later revived as a small temple but was abolished in the early Meiji era (1868–1912).