Tea Temple

Daitokuji, in the northwestern part of Kyoto is a complex containing over twenty separate Buddhist temples. Many are closed to the public, and others are open only at certain selected times of the year. Four of the temples were open for a couple of weeks in May, so I cycled over on two separate days to visit them.

One of the temples I visited had multiple connections to the Japanese tea ceremony:

On the temple grounds is a memorial to the founders of one of the tea ceremony schools, featuring stone motifs in the shape of tea whisks:

Front of the main temple building:

Further back in the temple complex were several traditional tea houses and tea rooms. Below is a corridor leading to two of the tea rooms: