Ninna-ji Temple

Emperor Koko vowed to build a temple here in 886 and died a year later, and his son Emperor Uda completed it in 888 and named it after the Ninna era. Uda gave up the throne, became a monk and was the first head of the monastery, and from then until 1867 members of the imperial family headed the temple. In the Onin War, which began in 1467, almost the entire complex burned down.

Restoration began in 1634 with the approval of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, and in the same years the Imperial Palace was being rebuilt, so whole halls were moved from there to the temple. The main hall, the Kondo, was the palace's Shishinden ceremonial hall, and it is the oldest surviving Shishinden and a National Treasure. The five-story pagoda, 36 meters tall, was built in 1644.

The temple's palace, the Goten, burned down in 1887 and was rebuilt in the early 20th century. The sliding doors in the Kuro-shoin hall were painted by Domoto Insho in 1937, and from the north garden you see the pagoda above the pond. The temple notes that this is the only garden in Kyoto with a view of a five-story pagoda. The Omuro cherry trees, low and late-blooming, peak in mid-April, and they have been a national Place of Scenic Beauty since 1924.