Daihikaku Senkoji Temple

    I went to the temple, in the mountain by the upper reach of Katsura River.It takes
about 20 minutes to walk from JR Saga Arashiyama Station.
   I watched a program about this temple on
TV. In this program, I saw the monk of the
temple was viewing the full moon with
a cute Shiba dog. I have been wanting to
visit the temple to see the cute ShiBa dog
until then
I hadn't known  this  dog was Sumire, the shiba dog of Senkoji Temple,when I met the dog on the way to the temple, but I would see her in the temple to know she had been Sumire.

On the way to Senkoji, I saw the beautiful scenery of
the upper stream of the Katsura River.

This is the sign board telling the way for Daihikaku, Senkoji Temple.
I would realy see the great view from the temple when I reached the temple, but at that time, I thought
this sign board was fishy.

I walked along the river

I arrived the entrance of the temple.
There is a big bell.

You can gong the bell freely, but only three times.

From the temple building located at the middle of the mountain, you can see the great view of Arashiyama.

the roof of the bell house

We could sit on the bench on the balcony, and I enjoyed the beautiful scenery from it for some time.

The room was ready for the tea ceremony.

The temple has only a small garden, but it was full of flowers named Shaga. I felt like being in the heaven.

The temple buildings are very small. They were originally built as a mountain hat by a
famous merchant, named Suminokura Ryoi
who founded the river transport system on
the Katsura River and the Hozu River in
16th century.

The monk´s office. 

Sumire, the shiba dog was not in the temple site when I arrived there because she had gone to welcome visitors with the monk down the mountain.  At that time, I realized that I had already met her!

Sumire the shiba dog came back some time later. She was very small as a shiba dog.
Maybe she is a mame-shiba(a miniature dog).

I heard that we can  enjoy silent time and great scenery by ourselves if we go there around 9:00a.m.  So you should  go this temple about 9:00 a.m, but don't tell this

to others!