Chisyaku-in TempleGardens managed

Chishaku-in Temple is the head temple of the Chisan sect of Shingon Buddhism. It was originally founded in the thirteenth century as a learning institute at Negoro-ji Temple in Wakayama prefecture. Although it was forcibly dissolved in the sixteenth century by the great warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it was later granted land by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and restored to the condition it enjoys today.

The garden on the eastern side of Kodo Hall is thought to have been created by Unkei, the temple's seventh head monk, after its grounds were expanded by an additional grant in 1674. It features a unique landscape design with an artificial hill that has distinctively pruned trees planted on it and that towers above the edge of the garden's long and narrow pond. Since the time of its creation, it has been praised as the best garden in the Higashiyama area. Its beauty as one of Kyoto's most famous gardens continues today. It was designated a Place of Scenic Beauty in 1945.