Rinzai-ji Temple

Rinzai-ji Temple

Rinzai-ji is a famous temple of the Myoshinji Sect of the Rinzai School of Buddhism.
It is a shoin architectural structure at the foot of Mt. Shizuhata.
The temple is open to the public only twice a year.
The main hall, the Muso-an teahouse, and the shoin drawing room are a nationally designated Important Cultural Property, and they are open to the public on Imagawa Yoshimoto’s death-day in spring and on the day of the great festival of prayer to Marici, the god Tokugawa Ieyasu worshipped, in autumn.
This temple is said to have been founded by Imagawa Yoshimoto on the site of his father Ujichika’s mother’s villa to mourn for Yoshimoto’s elder brother Ujiteru.
It is also the temple where Tokugawa Ieyasu was kept during his time of life as a hostage of the Imagawa clan.