front portion of the Mie-do interior is designed for worshippers, and this area, 34 feet (10.4 m) deep, is covered with 250 tatami mats in this 825 mat-sized hall. The attention of the worshippers is directed to the illuminated altar section to the north. Two rows of pillars divide the altar area into three parts, each with an image platform along its rear wall. The central or middle section holds an elaborate shrine in which, behind closed doors, is the seated image of Honen, said to have been carved by the founder of the sect as a self-portrait. Except on ceremonial occasions, the doors to this shrine are kept closed. The altar area is a contrast of black walls and golden pillars so that the golden central section, to which the worshippers’ attention is directed, stands out in all of its richness.
The section to the right (east) of this middle area has various shrines, the main shrine holding the Amida image which Honen is said to have worshipped. Another shrine has the image of Zendo, the Chinese master of Buddhism to whom the Nembutsu practice can be traced. The image has internal organs of brocade, a Chinese Buddhist influence that was meant to make the image a “living” being. This Kamakura period (1185–1333) image is a standing figure, its hands held in prayer, its mouth open. At one time the image had six small Amida figures issuing from its mouth—an indication that the priest was repeating the Nembutsu. Memorial tablets to past abbots are lodged here as well.
Additional shrines hold images of important priests, including that of Genchi, who, as one of Honen’s leading disciples, established Chion-in on the site of Honen’s hermit-age, The section to the left (west) of the central area serves as a memorial to the early Tokugawa who benefited the temple: in a shrine case (zushi) on the left is an image of Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun, who not only rebuilt portions of the temple in the early 1600s but who had the remains of Shinran moved from this area and thus made physically more evident the division between Honen’s form of Jodo Amida faith and that of his most famous disciple Shinran.
A group of resident monks stride across the courtyard of Chion-in Temple.
There are additional images, including that of Tokugawa Iemitsu, who ordered the rebuilding of the temple after its latest fire. Hanging in the hall is a large tablet in honor of Honen which reads “Mesho” (Brillant Illumination), a bit of an oddity since it was created at the request of the Emperor Meiji at a time when his government was doing its best to eliminate Buddhism from the Japanese scene. Overall, the shrine glitters with its decorations in gold and black: gilt metal lotuses in giant bronze vases stand 21 feet (6.4 m) tall, great pillars are encased in gold leaf, large ceremonial drums stand in the altar area, and even the door hardware is in the shape of animals. The awe-inspiring visual atmosphere lives up to the Mie-do’s alternate name of Dai-den (Great Hall).
SHUE-DO (ASSEMBLY HALL) Corridors surround the Mie-do, as mentioned earlier, and, from the middle of the rear corridor, a 197 foot (60 m) long roofed bridge leads to the Shue-do, the Assembly Hall. The Shue-do, in turn, is connected to the Hojo, the Superior Abbot’s Quarters. The corridor lying between the two buildings is the work of the famed craftsman Hidari Jingoro, and the corridor is noted for its uguisubari floor—a “bush warbler floor” that emits a sound when trod upon. The Sue-do was constructed in 1639 and is 78 feet (23.8 m) deep by 146 feet (44.5 m) long.
The hall serves a number of purposes: here the monks gather to form the religious processions which are an important part of ceremonial occasions; here religious services are held; and here monks chant the sutras. Some 48 drums are available for religious use by worshippers in this 360-mat hall, a hall so impressive that it has been known with some exaggeration as a “1,000-mat hall.” Two altars are the focal point of the hall: the central shrine holds a bronze image of Amida with his hands in a contemplative mudra while on either side of him is Seishi on the left and Kannon on the right, all three the works of Eshin Sozu (942–1010); a secondary shrine has an Amida with a Monju in wood on his right in the guise of a robed Buddhist monk. A curiosity that is always pointed out is a huge wooden spoon (O-shakushi), 8.2 feet (2.5 m) long and weighing 66 pounds (30 kg), which is stored in the rafters of the front corridor of the Shue-do at its southeastern end as one moves toward the Dai Hojo.
At the southeast side of the Shue-do is a courtyard and a garden and from its south side there is an entrance both to the garden and to the Hojo (the Abbot’s or Superior’s Quarters); the garden contains a Bussokuseki, a stone with the footprint of the Buddha inscribed upon it. A 1639 Kara-mon (Chinese gate) to the Superior’s Quarters was created in the ostentatious Momoyama manner, but its doors are only opened for guests of the greatest importance.
THE HOJO (ABBOT’S QUARTERS) The Hojo is composed of two parts: the Dai Hojo and the Sho Hojo, the Greater and Lesser Abbot’s Quarters. Particularly noted for its fine fusuma (sliding screens) by artists of the Kano school, it is a nine by six bay building with a hinoki (cypress) bark roof. Surrounded by corridors, the building is 120 feet (36.6 m) long by 87 feet (26.5 m) deep. The surrounding corridors open on to 11 rooms, which are divided by the fusuma. The Dai Hojo is more important than the Sho Hojo since it has a sanctuary for a Buddha image, and thus its screen paintings are richly and gorgeously painted in gold leaf while those of the Sho Hojo are more simple and are painted on plain rather than gilt paper.
The interior of the Dai Hojo is divided into two sections—a north and south set of rooms. The first room on the south side, the portion you enter from the corridor from the Sue-do, is the Matsu-no-ma (Pine Tree Room) by Kano Sadanobu (1596–1622). The Stork (or Crane) Room by Kano Naonobu (1607–50), the middle room on the south side, is so named from the painted storks and pines on a gold ground on the fusuma. The room is also known as the Butsu-no-ma since at its rear is an alcove with a standing Amida image on a platform. The third room faces both to the south and to the east, and is one of three rooms on the east side which, when brought together by the removal of the intervening fusuma, can become a large, formal Audience Hall for the one-time prince abbot.
The last room has a slightly raised platform (jodan) on which the abbot would sit. The room’s decorations of plum and bamboo were undertaken by Kano Noanobu in cooperation with Kano Nobumasa. The tokonoma by Noanobu features a painting of a Chinese poet looking at a waterfall, and adjacent is a chigaidana (staggered shelf), both of which are on the north wall of the room. To the left of the chigaidana on the west wall are doors with red tassels which open to a small room to the rear, the tassels symbolizing the doors behind which guards would have been stationed were this a secular building.
The garden of the Hojo (Abbot’s Quarters).
The other rooms are also named for the paintings on their fusuma, and these rooms, facing to the north and west, are usually seen as one leaves the Sho Hojo at the end of the visit. The first room on the northeast side of the building is the Ura-jodan-no-ma (Behind the Upper Room or the Prince’s Room), where the prince abbot took the ton-sure on becoming the superior of the temple. It has a raised tatami platform as a seat for the prince abbot, and its fusuma are decorated with pine trees on gold.
The next room to the west is the Chrysanthemum Room (Kiku-no-ma), where the paintings of the sparrows by Kano Nobumasa are so life-like that it is said they appear to be flying out of the picture. The Heron Room (Sagi-no-ma), also by Nobumasa, is the third room on the north side, and its rear fusuma depict herons while the side fusuma show willow trees in winter.
Two rooms on the west side complete the building. The one in the northwest corner is the Willow Room (Yanagi-no-ma), where the trees are shown in winter. The last room in the southwest corner is the Plum Tree Room (Ume-no-ma), which also depicts a wintery scene with the branches of willow and plum trees covered with snow. These two rooms were decorated by Kano Sadonobu. When going from the Dai Hojo to the Sho Hojo, there is a wooden door that has a faded painting of a cat, famed for the fact that the cat seems to be looking at the viewer no matter from what spot or angle it is regarded. Past the door, a covered bridge leads to the Sho Hojo.
SHO HOJO The Sho Hojo to the northeast is 79 feet (24 m) wide by 69 feet (20.7 m) deep, and is divided into six rooms by fusuma (sliding screens). All the rooms are surrounded by corridors encircling the