Kyoto: Giō-ji
Giō-ji (祇王寺) 🗾 is only about a 10-minute drive from the bamboo forest. Gioji Temple is a modest thatched hut surrounded by a bamboo grove and maple trees. The structure is simple. You cannot enter it, but it is open for viewing from the outside.
It is most closely associated with the Tale of the Heike, a classic Japanese epic from the 14th century that chronicles the 12th-century Genpei War, a civil conflict between the Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genji) clans for control of Japan. The structure is known as the convent of tragic love, to which the dancer Gio fled with her mother and younger sister from their home in the capital, becoming nuns after Gio fell out of favor with Taira-no-Kiyomori. Statues of the women are enshrined in the mail hall.
The temple is located within a larger area that was formerly part of the Oujyo-in Temple precincts. Its temple grounds fell into dilapidation, with only this modest convent remaining.
The surrounding garden is a serene, lush, greenery-and-moss environment worth visiting.
