Kyoto: Kenshinji Temple, My Heart's Delight

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In 1202 A.D., the second shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, Minamoto Yorinaga, financed the construction of a temple for the support of Zen Master Eisai, who built Kaneiji Temple, modeled after Mt. Hyakujo in the Southern Song Dynasty. In 1258, the founder of Tofukuji Temple, Zen Master Yuaner, rebuilt the temple, and it has specialized in Zen Buddhism ever since. A year later, a Chinese Zen master, Rankei Daolon, came to Kaneinji and transmitted the teachings of the Southern Song Zen sect to the temple, making it the third of the five mountains of Zen in Japan during the Muromachi period, which is a sign of the high status of the temple. After that, Kienrenji was destroyed again, and Ankokuji Keijo was rebuilt again with the support of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Kienrenji became the main mountain of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism in the Edo period, and has endured more than 800 years of wind and rain.

At the end of Hanami Path, turn right and you will enter Keninsa Temple. You may feel a little unimpressed when you first walk in, but if your mind is delicate and quiet enough, you will be captivated by the strong “Zen” atmosphere. The quiet courtyard, the long corridors, the bananas behind the round windows, and the courtyard behind the bell-shaped windows, will make the sensitive mind realize that these have gone beyond the meaning of Soto and have become an aesthetic template that combines architecture, painting, and gardens. It is said that one of the philosophies of Keninsa Temple is: Simplicity is born of repetition - living a simple life is the most luxurious thing you can do. Walking under the veranda of Keninsa Temple, you will deeply feel this juxtaposition of simplicity and luxury.

The Zen garden of Keninsa Temple is called Shioin-tei, which is small in size, but it is one of the finest of the Kusan-sui gardens. The concept of the Shioin-tei is based on that of the famous Edo-period painting monk, Senya Yoshifumi, and the main composition is a minimalist combination of “circle, angle, and square,” which some say alludes to the concept of the universe, but I think it is enough just to see the beauty in it.

Kaneinji Temple is famous for two drawings of dragons. The first is the “Cloudy Dragon” painted on a screen by Tomomatsu Kaitoku, who was invited to paint a series of screens for Kirenji in 1599, of which the “Cloudy Dragon” was the largest. Kaitoku's paintings were heavily influenced by Song and Yuan paintings, especially by Liang Kai, a Southern Song artist, and are more flexible than the stately and ornate Kano school of Japan of the same period, even having an unfinished and uneven beauty, and are more in line with the rustic interest of Zen Buddhism in Kienrenji Temple.

Kaneiji Temple's Dharma Hall was built in the second year of the Minghe era (1765) and is named Fenghuadang (Hall of Flying Flowers), which is derived from a Zen allusion to His Holiness Shakyamuni and His Holiness the Great Gyalwa, who smiled with a flower in their hands. To commemorate the 800th anniversary of the founding of Kirenji Temple, the temple authorities invited the artist Junsaku Koizumi to paint a picture of the hall's patio. The artist had the idea for a long time, and with huge washi paper and expensive Chinese Ming Dynasty Chengjunfang ink, he completed the “Twin Dragons” in an abandoned gymnasium in Hokkaido over a period of two years, which is the other famous dragon picture of Kienrenji Temple. Almost everyone who looks up to view the “Twin Dragons” in the ancient puja hall will let out a shocked gasp. Junzaku Koizumi's “Double Dragons” is a continuation of the funkiness of the “Cloudy Dragons” by Tomomatsu Kahoku from 400 years ago, with a denser, seemingly jarring composition that is balanced by contrast with the darkness of the patio and the golden statue of the Buddha underneath it. It is almost difficult to describe the twin dragons in this painting in other words, and it seems that only Stendhal's famous line from The Red and the Black can portray this feeling: “I have come from hell to go to heaven, and am passing through the earth.”

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