Kozan-ji Temple

Kōzan-ji, in the cedar-clad Toganoo hills northwest of Kyoto, was refounded by the priest Myōe Shōnin in 1206 and houses the celebrated Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga scrolls of frolicking animals, traditionally regarded as among the earliest Japanese narrative paintings. The temple also occupies a place in tea history as the site where Myōe planted seeds brought from China by Eisai. Ido's depiction likely centres on the Sekisui-in, the small Kamakura-period sub-hall whose hipped-and-gabled roof and stepped stone approach are the most photographed elements of the complex. The compositional logic places that roof against a backdrop of cedar and maple, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations carrying atmosphere down the slope. As an off-season or non-koyō treatment, this version probably foregrounds the mossy stone steps and verdant cedar trunks rather than the autumn palette of its sibling sheet. Within Ido's Kyoto cycle, Kōzan-ji is one of the temples he returned to repeatedly across seasons, producing variants that together function as a small monographic study.