Fukui

Daianzenji Temple

Experience Zen at a Tranquil Seventeenth-Century Temple

Daianzenji Temple is a Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple known for architecture, gardens, and Zen experiences. The temple offers zazen seated meditation sessions, as well as shakyo (tracing sutras), shabutsu (tracing Buddhist imagery), and kirie (cutting paper to make Buddhist-themed imagery), all available by reservation. Visitors can also make advance reservations to try a meal of shojin ryori, a plant-based Buddhist cuisine.

Most of the buildings date from 1658, when the temple was completed. The grounds are spacious, so visitors can enjoy the peace of a Zen temple, away from the crowds. In early summer, hundreds of hydrangeas, Japanese irises, and roses bloom here, and the temple holds an iris festival in June.

The construction of Daianzenji Temple was ordered by the Matsudaira family, the feudal lords of the Fukui domain. The graves of ten of these lords can be found here, and the temple’s head priests still pray for their souls.