Toji-in Temple

Toji-in is a temple of the Tenryu-ji branch of the Rinzai school in the Kinugasa area of Kita-ku, Kyoto, close to Ryoan-ji and Ninna-ji. It is the family temple of the Ashikaga shoguns, and its main image is Shakyamuni.

It began with Toji-ji, founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1341. In 1343 a branch temple was built with Muso Soseki as founding priest, and after Takauji died in 1358 the temple took the name Toji-in from his posthumous Buddhist name. It declined after the Onin War and was rebuilt in 1606 by Toyotomi Hideyori. In 1921 a film studio was opened on part of the former temple land.

The Reiko-den hall holds wooden statues of the Ashikaga shoguns from Takauji to Yoshiaki, with the fifth and fourteenth excepted, along with a statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu. The gardens, the Fuyo Pond in the west and the Shinji Pond in the east, are attributed to Muso Soseki, and both ponds are Kyoto City places of scenic beauty. Ryoan-ji is about 580 m away and Ninna-ji about 870 m.