An Enriching Overnight Stay at Shourekiji Temple
A featured contribution to the official Another Kyoto tourism campaign sponsored by the Kyoto prefectural government.
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Have you ever stayed overnight in a Buddhist temple? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience that immerses travelers deep in the heart of Japanese religious culture. In the hinterlands of north Kyoto Prefecture, the thousand-year-old Shorekiji Temple has opened its doors to foreign visitors for a luxury stay in its historic halls. Through a program of hands-on activities, the head priest at this temple seeks to bring visitors closer to Japanese Buddhism in a most enlightening way.
Shorekiji is located in the small city of Ayabe, just over an hour north of Kyoto City by express train. It’s a region rarely explored by foreign tourists, but noteworthy for the rustic charm that it offers. Farms dot the long valleys between forested hills, and the city of Ayabe itself clings to the banks of the wide Yura River. This is the real Japanese countryside—a place where traditional thatched roof farmhouses stand side by side with modern homes.
The temple sits on a small hill rising over the river, with the main entrance atop a flight of weathered stone steps. Since 942, worshipers have come to these sacred grounds to find comfort from generations of Buddhist priests. Nowadays, the smiling Koshin Tamagawa welcomes visitors, his warmth immediately noticeable. He grew up here and became a priest in his mid-twenties, so he knows the grounds intimately. He can just as casually point out where he played as a child as he can narrate the temple’s long history.
Tamagawa speaks eagerly of his inspiration to create overnight accommodations. “The goal of Buddhism is to live well,” he explains. “If I can share this simple concept with others, then I can enrich their lives in the process.” To this end, he began holding community meals in the temple about ten years ago. These events lifted the spirits of the locals, and eventually led to the restoration of the temple’s hundred-year-old guest quarters in 2017. The invitation for foreign guests grew naturally out of this process of enriching the lives of those who enter Tamagawa’s orbit.
