⚔️THE ASHIKAGA - KYŌTO'S CHAOTIC SHŌGUNATE🔥
Very close to own Camellia Garden Teahouse is Tōji-in (等持院), funerary temple of the Ashikaga shōguns.
The temple's teahouse 'Seiren-tei' (清漣亭) is one of the city's oldest, constructed by Ashikaga Yoshimasa (足利義政) around 1457.
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Seiren-tei, the 'Tea-house of Bright Ripples', overlooks a small lotus pond. Renovated early in the Edo period, in 1896 an extension (the 'seiseki' 西席) was added during repairs.
Ashikaga Yoshimasa's patronage of the arts was pivotal in the early development of tea ceremony and 'teahouses'.
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Tōji-in's 'north garden' (北庭) is counted as 1 of Musō Soseki's (夢窓疎石 1275-1351) '3 Great Gardens' (国師三大庭園).
Inspired by the grounds of neighbouring Shinnyo-ji (真如寺), Soseki created a gently rising 3D 'painting', using Mt Kinugasa (衣笠山) as borrowed scenery.
Not only is the original garden long lost (reinvented by Ashikaga Yoshimasa in 1457 and completely landscaped again in mid-Edo times), but the view of Mt Kinugasa has been completely, and rather unforgivably, obscured by the expansion of Ritsumeikan University (立命館大学).
The Tōji-in we recognise today emerged in 1358 as the funerary temple of Ashikaga Takauji (足利尊氏). Originally founded in 1341 under the guidance of Musō Soseki, the temple was one of a handful constructed by the Ashikaga family in Kyōto, all bearing the name Tōji-ji (等持寺).
It is thought the original Tōji-ji stood within the Sanjō Bōmon palace, built to pray for those killed in the Genkō War (元弘の乱).
By the end of the Ōnin War (1467-77) only 1 of the Tōji-ji temples survived...Kitatōji-ji (北等持寺). It is this temple that we now know as Tōji-in.
The Ashikaga shōgunate was both a blessing and curse for Kyōto. The clan's patronage aided in an extraordinary blossoming of culture, but their weakening grip on power resulted in a 10 year civil war that completely destroyed the capital and led to the "Warring States period".
#Ashikaga #Kinkakuji #Ginkakuji #Japan #KitayamaBunka #HigashiyamaBunka
Camellia Tea Ceremony