Japan Guide
Western Honshū
Sesshū-tei
Some 2km east of the park, along the major road Route 9, is the enchanting Sesshū-tei garden at the Jōei-ji temple (daily 8am–5pm; ¥300). The priest and master-painter Sesshū, born in Okayama-ken in 1420, settled in Yamaguchi at the end of the fifteenth century. After travelling to China to study the arts, he was asked by the daimyō Ōuchi Masahiro to create a traditional garden for the grounds of his mother's summer house. Sesshū's Zen-inspired rock and moss design remains intact behind the temple and, if you're fortunate enough to avoid the arrival of a tour group, you'll be able to sit in quiet contemplation of the garden's simple beauty, looking for the volcano-shaped rock that symbolizes Mount Fuji. The surrounding forest and the lily-pad pond add brilliant splashes of colour, particularly in autumn, when the maple trees flame red and gold. Orimoto, the closest bus stop to Jōei-ji, is around ten minutes' walk south of the temple.