Daitokuji: A Zen Temple Beyond Compare

Why it is worth going

Daitokuji grew from a lecture hall the monk Shūhō Myōchō founded in Kyoto in 1326; it produced the monks Ikkyū and Takuan, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi worshipped there, and Sen no Rikyū and the tea masters kept close to it.¹ For the 700th year its treasures leave the temple and its sub-temples together, the first such gathering in 41 years and the first ever in Tokyo: 14 National Treasures and 69 Important Cultural Properties.² The temple's Sanmon gate, normally closed, is rebuilt in the galleries, and its seated Shaka and the standing figure of Sen no Rikyū from inside it are shown in public for the first time.² The Kizaemon Ido tea bowl from Kohōan, a sixteenth-century Korean bowl and a National Treasure, is on view for the whole run.² The two halves change almost completely, so choose by the work: to 8 November, Muqi's triptych of Guanyin, gibbons and crane, a National Treasure; from 10 November, the Dragon and Tiger attributed to Muqi and Kano Eitoku's portrait of Oda Nobunaga.² Tickets are not refunded or exchanged; at busy times the queue at the gate ticket office runs past 30 minutes, so buy online and come on a Friday or Saturday evening, when the galleries stay open to 20:00.³ Every evening of the run the museum garden, with its five historic teahouses, opens from 17:30 for ZEN NIGHT TOKYO (to 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays), JPY 4,200 with exhibition entry; seated meditation in the Kujōkan pavilion there, 20 people a session, is booked by date and time at JPY 5,600.³