Osawa Pond, Daikaku-ji Temple Live Cam

This camera looks from the broad wooden veranda of Daikaku-ji Temple in western Kyoto out over the calm water of Osawa Pond. A lantern hangs from the eaves above the boards, and a wooden jetty and leafy trees stand at the water's edge beyond the railing.

Daikaku-ji was built on the site of a villa of Emperor Saga and later became an imperial temple of the Shingon school. It is also the headquarters of the Saga Goryu school of ikebana. Osawa Pond, about one kilometre around, is one of the oldest garden ponds to survive from the Heian period. Each autumn the temple holds a moon-viewing evening with boats on the water.

The view is taken from the moon-viewing veranda of the Godai-do main hall, which juts out towards the pond. Visitors stop at the railing to look across the water, and on calm days the surface mirrors the sky and the trees.