Anyoin Temple Shoin

A Small Residence Facing the Garden

Anyoin Temple Shoin (安養院書院, An'yōin shoin) is a small residential building at Anyoin, a sub-temple of Saikyoji in Sakamoto-honmachi, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture; it was built in 1930 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2001.

In Japanese temples a shoin is a reception or living room building, named after the writing alcove that often furnishes it. This one stands south of the priests' quarters and touches the Shoten Hall at its southwest corner. It is a single-storey building with an Irimoya-zukuri roof in Sangawara-buki pantiles, entered from the gable end (Tsumairi), with a building area of 58 square metres.

Why Anyoin Temple Shoin Was Registered

Inside are a living room with a Tokonoma alcove and a kitchen area. Having its own kitchen, separate from the priests' quarters, it was planned as a self-contained dwelling. Along the east and south, the sides that face the garden, runs a corridor that turns a right angle at the corner.

The building was registered as a model of form. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes Anyoin Temple Shoin as small but refined, with real character in the arrangement of its alcove and the finish of its clay walls. It was chosen for the quality of its interior rather than its size.

What to Look for at Anyoin Temple Shoin

The feature you can read from outside is the L-shaped corridor wrapping the east and south sides. It lets the rooms look onto the garden in two directions and puts a layer between the rooms and the garden. From the garden side, the turn of the corridor marks the corner of the building.

The other is the join with the Shoten Hall. The southwest corner of Anyoin Temple Shoin is attached to that late-Edo hall, which has the shoin on its left as you face it. A residence of 1930 was built snug against a Buddhist hall that predates the Shōwa rebuilding, and the two have been used as one connected group ever since.

The alcove and clay walls that earned the registration are indoors.

Visiting Anyoin Temple Shoin

No openings of the interior of Anyoin Temple Shoin have been announced, so the alcove and the wall finishes are not something ordinary visitors can see.

If the temple lets you go round to the garden side, the east and south corridor is the thing to look at, and from the corner you should be able to see the roofs of the Shoten Hall carrying on to the west. No photography policy has been published, so ask the temple first.