Sanjusangen-do Temple

Sanjusangen-do is a Buddhist temple hall in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto, a short ride from Kyoto Station. Inside its 120-meter wooden hall stand 1,001 statues of Kannon, the Buddhist figure of compassion, in long rows of gold. Admission is 600 yen for adults.

The temple's official name is Rengeo-in, and it belongs to the Tendai school. The name Sanjusangen-do means "hall of 33 bays," after the 33 spaces between the pillars of its inner sanctum. The hall and every statue inside it are National Treasures.

Sanjusangen-do is one of the Kyoto stops on a 14-day journey via Hakone and Kyoto, on a day that also covers Kyoto Tower and Higashi Hongan-ji.

Sanjusangen-do tickets and entrance fee

• Adults: 600 yen

• Junior high and high school students: 400 yen

• Elementary school students: 300 yen

• Groups of 25 or more: 50 yen off each ticket

Tickets are sold at the Fumonkaku building by the entrance, and no reservation is needed. Visitors with a disability certificate and one companion pay half price. You take off your shoes to enter the main hall, and shoe lockers are provided at the door, so wear socks. Wheelchairs can be borrowed, and the viewing corridor has ramps.

To compare it with other temples, see Kyoto temple ticket prices and when to go.

How to get to Sanjusangen-do

• By bus from Kyoto Station: Kyoto City Bus 100, 206 or 208 to the Hakubutsukan Sanjusangendo-mae stop takes about 10 minutes, and the gate is right by the stop.

• By train: the temple is about 7 minutes on foot from Exit 2 of Shichijo Station on the Keihan Line.

• By car: the temple lot holds about 50 cars.

Being this close to Kyoto Station, the temple works well on an arrival or departure day.

The temple's visitor information page lists current fees and access in Japanese.

The Kyoto highlights bus tour stops here with admission included. The same day covers Kiyomizu-dera, Kinkaku-ji and Fushimi Inari.

What to see inside the main hall

The 1,000 standing Kannon statues

The standing statues fill ten tiered rows on either side of the central figure. Each is roughly life-size, carved from cypress and covered in gold leaf, with 11 small faces on its head and 40 arms. Of the 1,000, 124 date from the hall's founding in the Heian period. The rest were carved over 16 years in the Kamakura period after the original hall burned. About 500 still carry the names of their sculptors, including members of the Kei school of Unkei and Kaikei.

A long restoration of the statues finished in 2018, when all 1,000 were designated National Treasures. Statues that had been on loan to national museums came back that year, and all 1,001 now stand together in the hall.

The seated Thousand-Armed Kannon

At the center of the hall sits the principal image, a seated Kannon 3.55 meters tall. The master sculptor Tankei completed it with his workshop when the hall was rebuilt. Like the standing figures, it uses 42 arms to represent the full thousand.

The 28 guardian deities, Fujin and Raijin

In front of the rows stand 28 guardian figures from ancient Indian tradition, each with its own pose and expression. Among them are Fujin (the wind god) and Raijin (the thunder god). These two statues shaped how Japanese artists drew the pair for centuries afterward. The temple suggests crouching slightly and looking up at them, so the rafters above look like lightning.

A touch-screen system behind the rows lets you look up any of the 1,001 Kannon and see its name and face up close.

The temple grounds

Outside the hall, a strolling pond garden designed in 1961 by Nakane Kinsaku was restored in 2021 and has paths suitable for wheelchairs. The Nandaimon gate and the Taiko-bei wall to the south were built under Toyotomi Hideyoshi and are Important Cultural Properties.

History of Sanjusangen-do

The retired emperor Go-Shirakawa had the hall built in 1164 inside his palace, with funding from the warlord Taira no Kiyomori. It burned in a city fire in 1249, and the hall you see today was completed in 1266. Its long, low structure sits on layered sand and clay and was designed to flex in an earthquake, which helps explain why it has survived for more than 750 years.

The Sanjusangen-do archery contest

The temple is also known for archery. On the Sunday closest to January 15, about 2,000 archers from across Japan compete in the Omato Taikai. The event recalls the Toshiya contests of the Edo period. Many of the archers are young people celebrating their coming of age, dressed in kimono. The grounds are open free that day. The temple also holds its most important ritual, the Yanagi no Okaji blessing, on the same day.