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Special Feature*
Simply Zen, Simply Kyoto
About 42 million tourists from Japan and overseas visit Kyoto each year. The city has more Zen temples than anywhere else in Japan, many with beautiful gardens and impressive buildings, some big, some small. Some of these temples regularly give rigorous training in the way of Zen. On these pages, we follow a U.S. reporter while he stays at a temple for one night and two days to practice zazen meditation and learn something about Zen culture.
Written by Mick Corliss, Photos by Omori Hiroyuki
Nipponia gratefully acknowledges the collaboration of Daihonzan Myoshin-ji Temple, 35 on map.
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Right after arriving in Kyoto, Mick Corliss goes to Tenryu-ji Temple, a cultural property inscribed in the World Heritage List.If the look on his face seems slightly apprehensive, that may be because he will soon begin his first zazen meditation session.
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Just over a stone's throw northwest of Kyoto's urban heart lies the Hanazono district. This quiet sliver of Kyoto is home to the likes of Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, and other famous temples and gardens. One is Myoshin-ji, a major temple of the Rinzai Zen sect. Step inside the gates and into another world, where monks with freshly shorn scalps shuffle around exquisite clusters of wooden buildings.
"Kyoto is the center of Zen in Japan. There are a number of places here open to foreigners that weren't 20 years ago," explains Jeff Shore, a professor of International Zen at Hanazono University and monk trainee at Myoshin-ji.
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Right: This magnificent building at Tenryu-ji Temple is the living quarters (kuri) for Buddhist monks.
Far right: Young monk trainees setting out from Tenryu-ji Temple to beg for alms.
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Morning zazen meditation inside the hatto hall of Myoshin-ji Temple.The dragon painted on the ceiling is said to protect Buddhism. Here he seems to glare down on the meditating trainees, making sure their minds do not wander.
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