Shirakawain Garden

Shirakawa-in now serves as the Kyoto lodging house of the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan. Its garden is a stroll garden fed by water from the Lake Biwa Canal, borrowing the Higashiyama hills as backdrop, and is the work of Ogawa Jihei VII — known as Ueji. Using artificial hills and mature pines to give the site a sense of depth, it belongs to Ueji's mature period and is designated a scenic site by the city. The sukiya-style old wing and the great gate with its curved gable in front of the garden were designed by the noted architect Takeda Goichi. Two first-rate hands working together produced a lodging whose quiet, distinctly Kyoto elegance has not gone out of balance with the years.