Chionin Temple

This guide to Chionin Temple in Kyoto follows Honen, sent into monkhood as a boy by his dying father's last words, who spent his life asking why salvation seemed reserved for scholars and priests. You'll hear about the answer he reached at forty-three, the exile it brought him, and how his disciple Genchi built this temple over his grave in 1234. Listen for the seventy-ton bell up the hill, rung by seventeen monks just twice a year, and look up at the eaves for the umbrella carpenters wedged there against fire.