Tenryu-ji Temple

Tenryuji Temple, the head temple of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism, is a representative Zen temple in Arashiyama, Kyoto, famous for its beautiful garden and ceiling paintings. It was registered as a World Heritage Site in 1994 along with Kiyomizu Temple, Kinkakuji Temple, Toji Temple, and Nijo Castle, and is a popular destination for tourists from Japan and abroad. The first is the world-famous Sogen-ike Garden.The garden is a pond garden with Sogen Pond in the center, and is also a borrowed landscape garden incorporating Arashiyama and Kameyama, which spread out behind the garden. The garden was created about 700 years ago.The garden was created by the founder of the temple, Muso Kokushi, and still retains the appearance of those days.Furthermore, the garden is the first nationally designated historical site and special place of scenic beauty.This is like a national treasure of scenery, and there are only 36 such places in Japan.

This bridge is called Togetsukyo literally means the moon crossing bridge. In old days the emperor was playing on a boat in this river. He looked up the bridge and felt that the moon seemed to be crossing the bridge as his boat was moving forward. After that this bridge has been called the moon crossing bridge, Togetsukyo.