Kennin-ji

Kennin-ji 建仁寺
in front of the Hattō (法堂, main hall)
Basic information
Location	584 Komatsu-chō, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture
Affiliation	Zen, Rinzai sect, Kennin-ji school
Deity	Shaka Nyorai (Śākyamuni)
Country	Japan
Website	http://www.kenninji.jp/
Architectural description
Founder	Minamoto no Yoriie
Completed	1202

Kennin-ji (建仁寺^?) is a historic Zen Buddhist temple in Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan, near Gion, at the end of Hanami Lane. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan or "five most important Zen temples of Kyoto".

Kennin-ji was founded in 1202 CE and claims to be the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto.

The monk Eisai, credited with introducing Zen to Japan, served as Kennin-ji's founding abbot and is buried on the temple grounds. For its first years the temple combined Zen, Tendai, and Shingon practices, but it became a purely Zen institution under the eleventh abbot, Lanxi Daolong (蘭渓道隆, Rankei Dōryū^?) (1213–1278).

The Zen master Dōgen, later founder of the Japanese Sōtō sect, trained at Kennin-ji. It is one of the Rinzai sect's headquarter temples.

When first built, the temple contained seven principal buildings. It has suffered from fires through the centuries, and was rebuilt in the mid-thirteenth century by Zen master Enni, and again in the sixteenth century with donations of buildings from nearby temples Ankoku-ji and Tōfuku-ji.