Yogen-in

Four Buildings from a Single Rebuilding

Yōgen-in (養源院, also written Yogenin) is a temple east of Sanjūsangendō in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, whose guest hall, votive fire hall, bell tower and inner gate were designated Important Cultural Properties on 9 February 2016. The four date from the early Edo period and belong to one campaign of reconstruction.

The temple was founded in 1594 by Yodo-dono, consort of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to mark the twenty-first memorial year of her father Asai Nagamasa. The founding priest was Seihaku Hōin, Nagamasa's cousin and a senior cleric of Mount Hiei. The temple's name is Nagamasa's posthumous Buddhist name, used unaltered. Fire destroyed the buildings not long after. In 1621 Nagamasa's other daughter Oeyo, wife of the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada, had the precinct restored, and Yōgen-in became the Tokugawa family's memorial temple, holding the mortuary tablets of successive shoguns.

The guest hall of 1621 is the centre of the group: 22.8 metres by 18.9 metres, single-storey, hipped-and-gabled with a tiled roof. Its plan follows the six-room hōjō arrangement standard for abbot's quarters. A rear entrance projects on the west face under its own hipped-and-gabled roof with a curved karahafu gable, and a sōjasho, an attendants' room, extends to the north. A private altar bay and corridor sit at the northeast corner.

The other three are smaller. The votive fire hall is three bays square, hipped-and-gabled and tiled. The bell tower, dated to around 1650, is one bay square under a gabled tiled roof. The inner gate is a single-bay yakuimon, gabled and tiled, with a wicket and earthen wall to the north and a wing wall and earthen wall to the south.

The Grounds of the 2016 Listing

The Agency for Cultural Affairs cites two criteria: excellence of design, and high historical value. Its assessment describes the guest hall as a bold hōjō building of large timber scantlings, with a substantial entrance, a raised formal room, and painted panels throughout, amounting to reception space of high quality.

The date is what raises it above the usual. Most surviving hōjō buildings can be placed only approximately; here the construction year is known and the fabric is well preserved, so the building anchors the sequence of early Edo hōjō development at a fixed point. The register notes that the votive fire hall, bell tower and gate are all of high quality as well, and that together they convey the condition of the precinct at the moment of its restoration.

Attached items are listed too. A ridge-end tile and a front gate go with the guest hall; a corridor goes with the votive fire hall; a guardhouse and two lengths of roofed earthen wall go with the inner gate.

Temple tradition holds that the 1621 rebuilding used material salvaged from Fushimi Castle. The national register does not record this, and the claim should be read as what the temple relates.

The Ceiling, and What Was Painted to Answer It

The corridor ceilings of the guest hall are the reason most visitors come. They are made of floorboards taken from Fushimi Castle, where in 1600 Torii Mototada and his men took their own lives rather than surrender during the siege that preceded the Battle of Sekigahara. The boards, stained by that event, were raised into the ceiling so that the dead would be commemorated rather than walked upon. Dark patches spread across the planks. A guide will point out where a head lay, where an arm fell. It is not comfortable, and it is not meant to be.

The paintings answer the ceiling. Tawaraya Sōtatsu, later famous for the Wind God and Thunder God screens, painted the cedar doors at the corridor's east and west ends with a white elephant, Chinese lions and a kirin, creatures associated with Buddhist merit transfer, offered to console those spirits. Sōtatsu was close to unknown when the commission came; the story goes that Oeyo, impatient with delays from the Kanō studio, had Hon'ami Kōetsu and others find someone else. He was found. In the Pine Room, where the shogunal tablets are kept, his sliding panels show an aged pine against abstracted rock on a ground of gold leaf, described by the temple as his only surviving fusuma paintings. Kanō Sanraku painted the Peony Room and the panels set into the altar platform of the Pine Room, both holding Kyoto City designation.

The corridors are all nightingale floors, boards fixed so that they chirp underfoot.

Visiting takes planning. Hours are 10:00 to 15:00 with last entry at 14:30, and admission is 600 yen. Opening days are irregular; the temple posts them on Instagram and asks visitors to check before coming. Telephone enquiries go to 075-561-3887. Interior photography is not allowed. The votive fire hall and inner gate are normally closed, so what you see is the guest hall and its paintings, with a commentary combining a staff explanation and a recording. Group visits should be arranged in advance.

City buses stop at Hakubutsukan Sanjūsangendō-mae and Higashiyama Shichijō, both about three minutes away on foot. Keihan Shichijō Station is about ten minutes. Sanjūsangendō and the Kyoto National Museum are immediately west.