Shōren-in

Shōren-in (青蓮院) is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan.

History
It was built in the late 13th century. Shinran Shonin, the founder of the Jodo Shinshu pure land sect, was ordained a monk at Shōren-in at the age of nine.

Shōren-in was formerly the temple of the imperial abbot of the Tendai headquarters on Mount Hiei; the abbot was required to be chosen from the imperial family or high court aristocracy. After the Great Kyoto Fire of 1788, it was used as a temporary imperial palace for Empress Go-Sakuramachi. It was therefore also known as the Awata Palace. Her study room was converted into a tea room called Kobun-tei. The main hall was rebuilt in 1895.

The temple complex contains a garden with massive eight-hundred-year-old camphor trees (kusunoki), and a pond filled with large stones and fed by a small waterfall.

The modern artist Hideki Kimura created a number of fusuma sliding doors with blue lotus motifs to evoke the Pure Land.