Yogen-in Temple
Ueyakato Landscape is privileged to manage the gardens of Yogen-in Temple.
In 1594, Yogen-in Temple was created by Yodo-dono, the concubine of the famous warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to mourn the passing of her father Azai Nagamasa. It burned down in 1619, but was restored in 1621 by Oko, the wife of Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada.
The garden is said to have been created by legendary garden designer Kobori Enshu. A drawing of the garden's pond stretching from east to west appears in the Miyako rinsen meisho zue (1799), but the garden was expanded northward after its shoin burned down in the late nineteenth century.
On the other hand, the main stone arrangements such as the dry waterfall are said to retain their original form. The limestone used for a waterfall stone features black veins running perpendicularly inside its white color so that they look like water flowing downward. The water for the waterfall stream is expressed with white quartz gravel and in front of the area it flows into uses attractive reddish-white silica.
For a dry waterfall to be preserved so well in its original condition and, in contrast with conventional dry waterfalls, to use such a wide variety of colors, is considered to be extraordinarily rare.
- Location:
- Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto
- Accessibility:
- Closed to the Public
- Garden creation period:
- Seventeenth century