page_title: Saimyō-ji (Kora)
section_title: Honbō Garden
hierarchical_section_title: Saimyō-ji (Kora) / Honbō Garden
caption_attribution_description: English: Saimyoji in Kora, Shiga prefecture, Japan 日本語: 西明寺, 滋賀県甲良町
context_page_description: Saimyō-ji, also known as Kotō-sanzan Saimyōji or as Ryūōzan Saimyōji is a Buddhist temple of the Tendai sect in Kōra, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Founded at the beginning of the ninth century by the 54th Emperor of Japan, the temple is dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing. The complex includes several National Treasures and a garden designated as Place of Scenic Beauty of Japan.
context_section_description: Beyond the gate of the temple, lies a wooded garden, on the ground covered with moss. Known as Honbō (本坊庭園 Honbō-teien), it contains cedars, cypress, and a large number of  Japanese maple trees that are popular in autumn during leaf peeping season. Spring blossoms in the garden include pink and white flowers of Yoshino cherry trees, mountain cherry (yamazakura), spring cherry (higanzakura), white bell-shaped flowers of Enkianthus perulatus, flower beds of Rhododendron and hydrangea.
  From the beginning of September until November, the garden is a popular spot for autumn hanami, when the toad lilies, camellias,  Japanese maple and fudan zakura (不断桜), a late blooming cultivation of a Japanese ornamental cherry tree, give the full measure of their flowering. Some of these ornamental cherry trees were planted in the mid-eighteenth century.
  Near the Nitenmon, two Japanese cedars (Cryptomeria japonica), joined at the base of their trunks, form a pair of siamese trees. A shimenawa surrounding them emphasizes the sacredness of this "married couple" (夫婦 meoto).  Associated with the much younger cedar that grows to a few centimeters from their contiguous trunks, they symbolize a family to which a Local belief attributes miraculous properties: it would be enough to put hands on their roots or trunk to ensure good health, longevity, a harmonious couple life, family prosperity or even a painless childbirth.
  The garden, which has been listed as a Place of Scenic Beauty of Japan since 1987, includes a landscaped garden known as Hōrai Garden (庭庭 Hōraitei), a donation by the daimyō Mochizuki on the occasion of the celebration of the reconstruction of the Temple in 1673. With its stones representing the triad of the Pure Land, Nikkō and Gakkō Bosatsu, and the Twelve Heavenly Generals, this expanse of greenery constitutes an allegory of Mount Penglai of Chinese mythology. Among the plants on an island in its koi pond, emerge stones whose shapes resemble a tortoise or a paper crane, traditional figures of the Japanese art of folding paper.
caption: Hōrai Garden
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