The shop lives inside Somedono-in, a temple on Shinkyogoku. We kept the hundred-year-old architecture intact and let temple and mode breathe on the same floor. Before you shop, the space itself is the first experience.
About Somedono-in
A temple founded in 808, revered as a guardian of safe childbirth
Somedono-in is an ancient temple on Shinkyogoku-dori at Shijo, said to have been founded in 808 by Kobo Daishi (Kukai). Its principal image is a standing Jizo Bodhisattva — the “Somedono Jizo,” traditionally carved by Kukai’s own hand and shown to the public only once every fifty years.
About fifty years after its founding, Empress Somedono — consort of Emperor Montoku — prayed here for a child, and was blessed with the future Emperor Seiwa. From her name the image came to be called the “Somedono Jizo” and the temple “Somedono-in,” revered ever since as a guardian of safe childbirth.
The temple even appears in the National-Treasure scroll “Ippen Hijiri-e” (Kamakura period), where Ippen — founder of the Ji school — is recorded chanting the nenbutsu at the Shaka-do of Shijo-Kyogoku: this very temple. REZEN KYOTO stands within its precincts. Through what we wear, we slip our arms once more into a Kyoto story over a thousand years old.
- Founded
- 808 — by tradition, Kobo Daishi (Kukai)
- Principal image
- Jizo Bodhisattva — the “Somedono Jizo,” a prayer for safe childbirth
- Origin
- Empress Somedono’s prayer, and the birth of Emperor Seiwa
- Location
- Nakano-cho, Shinkyogoku-dori-Shijo-agaru, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto