Kyoto—Hongwanji Temple

“The interior of the buildings is magnificently decorated after Japanese ideas of art. The floors are covered with tatami, or Japanese matting, and every worshipper, of course, removes his sandles or shoes before eating. Carved cornices and richly painted screens, wit winter scenery, flowers and birds, are the chief methods of decoration. It is quite impossible to describe the richness of the shrine or to make, without photographs, their shape intelligible.”




“Two large Buddhist temples—the Higashi Hongwanji and the Nishi Hongwanji—situated on the same street, within a few hundred yards of each other, well repaid a visit. The gigantic, high-roofed portals of both are very handsomely painted and carved with peonies, chrysanthemums, &c.”




“This Higashi Hongwanji (Eastern temple) was eight years, at an enormous cost, and is the largest temple in Japan. … At the Nishi Hongwanji of Kioto the vast interior discloses masses of carving, gilding, lacquer, damascening and paintings on golden groundwork, and Monto altars are more splendid than those of any other sect. This Hongwanji is very rich, having been endowed with lands and mines in the days of Hideyoshi, its special protector, and the temple enclosure holds many relics of the Taiko.”

Albert Tracy, Rambles Through Japan Without a Guide, (London, 1892) p. 191

Arthur H. Crow, Highways and Byeways in Japan, (London, 1883) p. 46

Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, Jinrikisha Days in Japan, (New York, 1891) pp. 236–237