Eiheiji and Hakujukan: Zen Practice With a Proper Bed
Eiheiji, in the cedar forest of Fukui, is one of the great training monasteries of Zen. An 18-room inn at its gate lets guests sit zazen and attend the morning service, then return to a bath and a vegetarian dinner.
Eiheiji stands in a valley of old cedars in Fukui prefecture, on the Sea of Japan side of the country. It was founded in the thirteenth century by the monk Dogen and is one of the two head temples of the Soto school of Zen. It is a working monastery, where monks are trained in a discipline of meditation, chanting and manual work.
Visitors who want more than a walk through the halls can look at the temple’s own programmes for guests, which should be asked about directly. Hakujukan offers a gentler way in.
The inn
Hakujukan is the hotel of Eiheiji Temple. It stands at the approach to the monastery and has 18 rooms, in Japanese and Western styles. It describes itself as combining the hospitality of a Japanese inn with the experience of a monastery.
Its particular feature is the Zen concierge. These are members of staff trained at Eiheiji, who guide guests through the Zen experience at the temple and within the inn. Guests can practise zazen, seated meditation, and those who stay have the opportunity to attend the monks’ morning service.
Meals are shojin ryori, the vegetarian cooking of Buddhist temples, served in the inn’s restaurant, with the sake of Echizen for those who want it. There are separate baths for men and women, with open-air baths.
What a stay is like
A stay usually means arriving in the afternoon, walking up through the cedars to the temple, sitting zazen with the concierge and, the next morning, attending the monks’ early service before breakfast at the inn.
It is not a retreat in the full sense. What it offers is an introduction, with instruction, in the place where the practice is carried on. The monastery is a place of worship and training before it is a destination, and visitors are asked to follow its rules and its quiet.
For travellers
Fukui has been on the shinkansen network since March 2024, when the Hokuriku Shinkansen was extended from Kanazawa. The temple is reached from Fukui by road; by car it is about ten minutes from the nearest expressway interchange. The inn has no car park of its own. Programmes, times of the morning service and what is offered in English should be confirmed when booking.
Those who want a fuller monastic stay can sleep in a temple on Mount Koya. For a modern setting, there is Zenbo Seinei on Awaji Island. The hot-spring towns of Kaga lie on the same railway.
