Temple of Golden Bliss: Konpuku-ji!
Konpuku-ji was built in 864 as the priest Ennin's dying wish by An'e, a fellow Buddhist priest. Inside was installed a statue of Kannon which had been made by Ennin himself. Though it was part of the Tendai sect, it fell into disrepair, but later in the Genroku era, the priest Tesshu restored it, and it was converted to the Rinzai sect.
One of the famous attractions of Konpuku-ji is the Basho-an, a small cottage located halfway up the hill at Konpuku-ji behind the garden. This little cottage had attracted the attention of many famous people in its day, mostly because it was where one of Japan's most famous poets, Matsuo Basho, spent the night in 1670 on one of his wanderings while composing poems. It was called Basho-an by the priest Tesshu, later. Its roof is thatched with miscanthus and inside is a tea room. North of the cottage under a tree is a stone on which some poems of Basho are inscribed, and there is also a well, which -- tradition says -- was used by Basho.
In 1760, the Haiku poet and painter, Buson, visited the district, following the footsteps of Basho, who was his idol. He was distressed to find the cottage in shambles, and with the help of his disciples -- Haykuchi, Gekkyo, and Doryu -- he rebuilt it.
Along with Matsuo Basho and Kobayashi Issa, Yosa Buson is considered to be among the greatest poets of the Edo period. He was born in Kema Village, Osaka Prefecture. At around the age of 20, he went to Edo and devoted himself to mastering the art of painting, overcoming many difficulties. He learned poetry under the tutelage of the haikai master, Hayano Hajin. Following the footsteps of Matsuo Basho, he traveled through the wilds of northern Honshu which had been the inspiration for Basho's famous travel diary, Oku no Hosomichi. He published the notes from his journey in 1744, marking the first time he published under the name Buson.
After traveling through various parts of Japan -- such as Tango and Sanuki -- he settled down in the city of Kyoto at 42 and began to write under the name of Yosa (his mother's birthplace). At 45, he married a woman from Miyazuki in Kyoto Prefecture and had one daughter, Kuno. After this he remained in Kyoto and began writing and teaching poetry at the Sumiya. In 1770 he took the haigo -- a pen-name used in haiku -- of Yahantei, which was the pen-name of his late teacher Hayano Hajin.
His painting, Wild Horse, gave him a position as a first-class artist, and when he was 53, his economic situation improved and he made much progress in painting and poetry. Buson died when he was 68 on Christmas Day, 1783.
Buson's tomb is on the slope of Konpuku-ji temple, surrounded by his disciples', Gekkei, Gekkyo, Tairo, and others. In 1949 the tomb of Aoki Getto, a poet of Osaka, was built here. The view of Kyoto City from here was so spectacular that Takahama Kyoshi, a close disciple of Masaoka Shiki -- a famous poet of the Meiji era -- composed some poems about the place.