Kenninji Temple

Kenninji Temple feels like a peaceful Zen escape—far less crowded than Kyoto’s big-name temples. The modern yet majestic ceiling painting of twin dragons is breathtaking, and the lush courtyard is a serene highlight.

This is the best and oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. Not as busy as other places and the gardens are fantastic as are all the buildings. A great place to relax. Well worth a visit. 800 jpy entry pp.

Correct as of July '25 Midday, midweek. Beautiful and interesting place. Fairly quiet, lovely to explore. Unfortunately, there are very few signs in English and no guide, making difficult to understand and less enjoyable or interesting than it could be

The temple is very peaceful, I would suggest to take some time out and chill by the water, there usually is a lot of tourist chatter so preferably go early or in the evening.

Wonderful temple worth the entrance fee. The impressive dragon ceiling is a massive artwork hanging over one of the halls. Be sure to visit also the smaller exhibitions and the traditional Japanese gardens. Wonderful place.

Most beautiful zen garden, visited just after heavy rain and it was incredibly tranquil and green. Would come back in a heartbeat. The ceiling mural is very impressive too and you can rent kimonos and walk around the temple from a nearby shop.

A true Kyoto treasure. Much more tranquil than the other big name temples around the city. Sitting peacefully overlooking the rock gardens is worth the price of admission alone (800 Yen). The artwork is breathtaking in its scale and detail. I could spend a lifetime walking on the polished wood floors and tatami mats and still want more. The scents of the temple cannot be captured in a picture but will stay with me long after leaving Kyoto. The oldest Zen Buddhist temple in the city and somehow still a hidden gem.

A beautiful Zen temple in Gion. Walking around it you feel peace. It has really nice rooms where you can see the traditional paintings, tatamis and zen gardens. It is breath taking.

There are so many temples in Japan. One of them is Kennin-ji Temple located in Kyoto. The most beautiful part of this temple is what's inside. There are many beautiful artwork. Other than that, the outside is very well maintained and is very beautiful as well. The outside is very beautiful. yes it is very big as well. I got lots of great pictures.

"" The Zen Gardens are Gorgeous "" Kennin-ji is a historic Zen Buddhist temple in Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan, near Gion, at the end of Hanami Lane. Our guide knew all the right spots and vantage points for us to experience the best, and most serene view. The interior ceiling of the temple itself was adorned with a beautiful painting of dragons, a recent commemorative addition in 2002.This is a terrific place to take pictures as it is much less crowded than some other Temples. It's a Good place to stroll around and soak up all the history and views of a very old Buddhist temple. The Zen gardens are very beautiful.

There is so many temples in Kyoto it was overwhelming to narrow it down and pick one or two. My gf wanted to come here for their dragon art and I'm glad we did. It's free to get in but some area, like the whole art section, was a fee. As you enter the whole premise you walk down, and on the right side you keep walking to a small door entrance and that is where the dragon art is, as well as other arts. You take off your shoes. There are so many arts to look at, drawings, wall art, culture, it was a nice breath of fresh air. As you walk in this whole area there is also zen gardens. You can't go in them, just to look at. Each section of the room has different arts. As you walk towards the back there is a whole garden like area, very peaceful and full of trees. There is shoes for you to put on as you walk to the back. In there you will also see an open room for a small traditional tea time. You have to pay but it was pretty cheap. You get tradtional green tea, which was foamy and aromatic, and a sweet treat that had red bean. It was a nice little snack to have. As you finish you can walk around the small garden area and take you step back up, take the shoes off and go to another area where again, you wear another slipper and walk towards the outside to a grand room. I was not expecting this but it was some temple of a goddess or protector I think, When you look a the ceiling there is a huge wall art that is covered with twin dragon art. It's hard to explain but so grand when you look at it. I believe it was all hand drawn. There are many areas to observe, this is just one part of the temple. Everything seemed so peaceful and had a great positive aura. Even though you can't go in the zen gardens, just looking at them felt like a sense of stress is off your shoulder. As we stepped out and put our shoes back on, we looked around at other areas. Most just trees and a few things to look at here and there. I don't think we found much because we did not know where we were going and for the most part we came mainly for the dragon art. I would recommend checking this place out if you are in Kyoto. They are also near a restaurant that has a popular chicken bowl in hot stone pot for lunch (Wabiya).

A convenient temple to visit if you are in Gion. It has big grounds, and we visited at the end of the day so were a bit tired of walking, so we didn't see everything on the property, but this is another fine example of the classic architecture of Kyoto's temples.

When I headed for this temple, traffic was a little heavy on the narrow street leading to the temple. I walked on the road carefully lest I should be run down by car (in my youth I had an experience of being hit by car). The ground of the temple was spacious and I saw many sightseers taking some pictures of main halls and surrounding scenery. They seemed to come here to see a famous image of the wind and thunder gods drawn by Sotatsu Tawaraya in the Edo period (it appears in history text books) and painting of twin dragons on the ceiling. Both of two were overwhelming!! Their glaring eyes are so scary!! It is worth seeing, if you once see it, you will make an oath that you will never do a wrong thing. In front of the abbots' chamber vast dry landscape garden spread in front of me. If I stayed alone without talking for a long time, I might reach a stage where I am free of all thoughts and desires.