| Location: | 69-1 Awadaguchi Sanjobocho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture |
| Religious Affiliation: | Buddhism |
| Country: | Japan |
| Year Completed: | 13th Century |
is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan.
It was built in the late 13th century. Shinran Shonin, the founder of the Jodo Shinshu pure land sect, was ordained a monk at Shōren-in at the age of nine.
Shōren-in was formerly the temple of the imperial abbot of the Tendai headquarters on Mount Hiei; the abbot was required to be chosen from the imperial family or high court aristocracy. After the Great Kyoto Fire of 1788, it was used as a temporary imperial palace for Empress Go-Sakuramachi. It was therefore also known as the Awata Palace. Her study room was converted into a tea room called Kobun-tei.[1] The main hall was rebuilt in 1895.
The temple complex contains a garden with massive eight-hundred-year-old camphor trees (kusunoki), and a pond filled with large stones and fed by a small waterfall.
The modern artist Hideki Kimura created a number of fusuma sliding doors with blue lotus motifs to evoke the Pure Land.[2] [3] [4]