A Soto Zen temple in Sakaimachi, Hanno, whose name Torinji (Eastern Forest Temple) evokes a Zen practice hall nestled in the eastern woodland — embodying Zen training in harmony with nature. Rooted in the warrior and farming communities of the Oku-Musashi hills, it has long served as a place of memorial rites and ancestral veneration. The simple Zen precinct in abundant natural surroundings is als…

Torinji is traditionally said to have been founded in the late Muromachi period or the early Edo period (around the fifteenth to early seventeenth century), establishing itself as a Soto Zen temple in the Oku-Musashi hill country. Soto Zen was introduced to Japan by Dogen Zenji in the thirteenth cen…