Saihōji (Kokedera) Temple

This guide to Saihoji, Kyoto's Kokedera or moss temple, starts in 1339 with the Zen monk Muso Soseki laying out a dry garden of raked sand and bare rock, a design later copied at the Golden and Silver Pavilions. You'll hear how war and repeated flooding from the nearby river left the temple in ruins for generations, and how the ground the monks kept rebuilding slowly changed on its own. Listen for why every visitor today must first sit and copy out a Buddhist sutra by hand before reaching the garden, a ritual the temple has required since 1928.