Yoshinosan Chikurin-in
TEL	07463-2-8081	including 2 meals 15,750 ~ 30,000 yen
Access	"Kintetsu Railway Yoshino station" > (Ropeway) > "Yoshinosan" >20 minutes walk
Parking	There is a parking lot
Time	Check-in 15:00 Check-out 10:00
Room	55 guest room
This shukubo is the founding dojo (training hall) of Shugendo and is located in Yoshino, which has been registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gunhoen garden is a kind of pond garden and is said to have been built by Sen-no-Rikyu. As one of the three gardens representing Yamato (the present Nara Prefecture), its beauty and classiness are second to none. The charm of the cherry trees that are planted around it as if they were leaning toward the pond was truly inspiring, all the more so because it was not the season for blossoms. With the mountains of Yoshino spreading in the background and the unique roofs with their fume ventilation sticking below, the garden has charm that will never bore you even if you stay there absent-mindedly for hours. Once you step into the shukubo, a neat lobby space spreads out before you. The building interior is like a luxury inn. Pictures of standing screens painted by Motonobu Kano and the lunch box used by Hideyoshi Toyotomi when he visited Yoshino for cherry-blossom viewing, which are displayed in the lobby, make us feel the history of this place. As for the meals, they serve kaiseki course meals including sweetfish, tofu and buckwheat noodles, etc. I was quite full after the dinner. There are two common baths: Musasabi-no-Yu (the flying squirrel bath) and Kamoshika-no-Yu (the antelope bath). They are used as men's baths and women's baths alternately by the day. From Musasabi-no-Yu, you are able to see the beautiful scenery of the sun setting in the mountains. I really felt relaxed in the bath. There is no morning service at the shukubo, but they have a morning service from 6:30 at Zao-do at Kinpusen-ji temple, which is a ten-minute walk distance and you are free to participate in it. You can fully taste the Shugendo atmosphere, in which the sound of a conch horn echoes. You can also take a walk in Yoshino in the morning before many people come. It is possible to find charms that cannot be experienced on an ordinary trip. When I stayed there, swallows were making a nest in the lobby. I was able to see the baby swallows leaving the nest one by one just as I was leaving for the morning service. I was very moved to see such an impressive scene and felt the warmth of the people at the lodging, who watched over them until the baby birds were able to leave the nest.
KinpuSen-ji, Yoshimizu-jinzya, Nyoirin-ji, Chikurin-in

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