Ryokoin Temple

A Daitokuji Sub-Temple Linked with the Kuroda Family

The Ryokoin Temple (龍光院, Ryokoin) is a sub-temple of Daitokuji in Murasakino, Kita Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, whose shoin, including the Mittan tea room, was designated a National Treasure in 1961; its Kuroda family mausoleum and other buildings such as the dormitory and small kitchen are Important Cultural Properties.

The MIHO MUSEUM explains that it was founded in 1606 by Kuroda Nagamasa, with Kogetsu Sogan as founding abbot, to pray for his father Kuroda Kanbei. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that a mausoleum in its southwest graveyard holds the five-ring stupas of Kuroda Yoshitaka (Josui) and his wife Shofukuin.

The Agency considers the mausoleum a vivid testament to the ties between daimyo families and the Zen sub-temples they supported.

The Shoin and the Mittan Tea Room

According to the Agency, the shoin grew from a tea room built in the Kan'ei era (1624 to 1643), around which a hall and other rooms were added in about 1649; the tea room is called Mittanseki.

Said to reflect the taste of Kobori Enshu, it is a four-and-three-quarter-mat room somewhat in shoin style, with two alcoves, one for calligraphy by Mi-an Xianjie and one for a covering letter by Rikyu. The Agency calls it a representative early Edo tea room.

The Kuroda Family Mausoleum

The Agency places the mausoleum in the graveyard west of the earthen wall at the southwest of the precinct, apparently completed in 1608 when Ryokoin was founded. It is a small three-bay Zen-style hall, but its brackets, beam-end carvings and painted bearing blocks are finely made, and it is valuable as one of the few mausoleums of the Momoyama period.

The Agency also values it for understanding the layout of Zen sub-temples in the early modern period.

Visiting Ryokoin

No official information on visiting could be found.

Check with Daitokuji before visiting.