These are some facts about Eiheiji, A Buddhist temple.
- Name Meaning: Translates to “Temple of Eternal Peace”.
- Location: Situated in the mountains about 15 km east of Fukui City.
- History: Established in 1244 by Dōgen Zenji, who brought Sōtō Zen from China to Japan.
- Monastic Training: It is an active training monastery (dōjō) for unsui (monks in training).
- Architecture: The 70+ buildings are connected by covered walkways to protect against heavy winter snow.
- Highlights: The Sanshokaku hall features a ceiling with 230 paintings of birds and flowers. The Jōyōden (Founder’s Hall) contains the ashes of Dōgen.
- Visitor Experiences: Visitors can experience zazen (seated meditation) and sample shojin ryori (vegetarian Buddhist cuisine).
- Rules: The atmosphere is strict and quiet; photography of monks is prohibited.
When we got there it was snowing so we really wanted to have a snowball fight at the temple but we would get kicked out. As we went into indoors we had to carry our shoes and put on sandals. As we walked through the temple there was stairs which were hard to climb with the sandals without them falling off. There was a lot of photos of famous Buddhists and what happens through life in the cycle of cherry blossoms. There was a are with monks praying and doing whatever monks do while we walked right past them. The temple was a ton of different winding passages which kinda made it hard to navigate. At the end we saw weird statues of gods who had blue skin, four eyes, 3 arms and two mouths. As we exited it started raining heavily so we were speed walking to the car.
The detail about carrying shoes and switching to sandals while climbing stairs stuck with me, since that practical friction rarely gets mentioned alongside the architecture. A useful tweak would be to bring a small drawstring bag for your shoes so your hands stay free on the stairways, and to note which passages loop back on themselves before setting out, since the winding layout makes it easy to lose your bearings.