View source for Chion-in

[[Image:Chionin.jpg|right|thumb|500px|The main gate of Chion-in.]]
*''Established: [[1234]]''
*''Japanese'': 知恩院 ''(Chion-in)''

Chion-in, in Kyoto, is the head temple of the [[Pure Land Sect]] of Buddhism. The main gate of the temple is the largest in the country of that particular type or style.

Originally founded in [[1234]], the entire compound was rebuilt in the 1630s, under the patronage of Shogun [[Tokugawa Iemitsu]]. The hollyhock crest of the [[Tokugawa clan]] can be seen on the ends of many of the roofbeams.

Foreigners were allowed to stay overnight at the temple during the [[Meiji period]]; prominent travelers who did so included Mr. and [[Isabella Stewart Gardner|Mrs. Jack Gardner]] of Boston. Painter [[John Lindon Smith]] may have stayed there in [[1900]]; a painting by him today in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum<ref>Entitled "The Apartments of the Chief Priest, Kyoto"</ref> depicts the interior of the now no longer extant ''dai-hôjô'' (abbot's quarters), originally constructed in the early 17th century.

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==References==
*Plaques on-site.
*Philip Hendy. ''Catalogue of European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum''. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1974.
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[[Category:Temples]]
[[Category:Kamakura Period]]