Evening visit at Kodai-ji Temple, Kyoto

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In the fall, some temples in Kyoto light up their temple and garden. It gives a different feeling to visit in the late evening. We visited Chion-in and Kodai-ji on two evenings of November 2021. Here is a video of our visit in Kodai-ji and some photos (with iPhone 12 pro without flash) taken in both temples.

Kodai-ji Temple, formerly known as Kodaijusho-zenji Temple, is located in the Higashiyama mountains of eastern Kyoto just south of Yasaka Shrine. It was established in 1605 by the noblewoman Kita-no-Mandokoro in memory of her late husband, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. She became a Buddhist nun after the death of her husband and adopted the religious name Kogetsu-ni. She died at the age of 76 on Sept. 6, 1624.

Chion-in (Monastery of Gratitude) in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan is the headquarters of the Jōdo-shū founded by Hōnen (1133–1212).
The vast compounds of Chion-in include the site where Hōnen settled to disseminate his teachings and the site where he died. By pure coincidence, we went to visit Chion-in the night of the full moon eclipse on November 19th, 2021. You can see the moon on the photos, half obscured by the earth... by the time we walked out of Chion-in, the moon was full.

© PHOTOS BY JC DUMONT