Kennin-ji

Quick facts

Address

584 Komatsucho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto

About this place

Kennin-ji, in Higashiyama, Kyoto, is head temple of the Kennin-ji branch of Rinzai Zen. It was founded in 1202 when the shogun Minamoto no Yoriie donated the temple grounds and the priest Eisai was made founding abbot. At first it held two halls for Shingon and Tendai practice and was a place of study combining three traditions — Tendai, esoteric Buddhism and Zen. Eisai, its founder, studied tea and its uses in Song China, wrote a treatise on tea and health, brought tea seeds back to Japan and promoted their cultivation.

Origin and history

Kennin-ji was founded in 1202 when the shogun Minamoto no Yoriie donated the temple grounds and Eisai was made founding abbot. It is said to have been modelled on Baizhang shan in Song China.

At its founding it held two halls for Shingon and Tendai practice and was a hall of study combining three traditions — Tendai, esoteric Buddhism and Zen. Under later abbots it became a purely Zen training hall, and it is now head temple of the Kennin-ji branch of Rinzai.

In Song China Eisai drank tea and studied its uses and its manner, and wrote a treatise on tea and the nourishing of life. He brought tea seeds back to Japan and promoted their cultivation.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  1202, Yoriie and Eisai

  Founded in 1202 when the shogun Minamoto no Yoriie donated the grounds and Eisai was made founding abbot.

  documented history

• Origin

  Three traditions at first

  At its founding it held halls for Shingon and Tendai and combined Tendai, esoteric Buddhism and Zen.

  documented history

• Power spot

  A treatise on tea, and the seeds

  Eisai studied tea in Song China, wrote his treatise on tea and health, and brought seeds back to promote cultivation.

  documented history

What this temple’s record tells is not a wish but an order of beginnings. In 1202 a shogun gave the land and Eisai became founding abbot. It was the first Zen temple in Kyoto.

It was not purely Zen at the start, though. At its founding it kept two halls for Shingon and Tendai and taught three traditions together. Becoming a Zen temple outright came under later abbots.

One other thing spread into Japan from here: tea. Eisai studied its uses and its manner in Song China, wrote his treatise on tea and health, and brought seeds home to be planted. That is why he is called Japan’s tea patriarch. But this is history, not a benefit the temple offers.

Related guides

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• What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
• Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
• Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.

Sources

1. 建仁寺を知る — 建仁寺 — Kennin-ji (accessed 2026-08-13)