Chion-in is the headquarters of the Jōdo (Pure Land) school of Japanese Buddhism, the country's largest Buddhist denomination, founded by the monk Hōnen in the late twelfth century. The current temple buildings date largely from the seventeenth century and are spectacular in scale. The two-storey sanmon gate of 1619 is the largest surviving wooden temple gate in Japan, twenty-four metres tall and fifty metres wide; the giant Mieidō main hall behind it, recently restored, dwarfs the visitor.
The temple's enormous bronze bell — cast in 1633 and weighing seventy-four tonnes — is one of the largest in Japan, and ringing it on New Year's Eve, with seventeen monks straining on ropes, is one of the country's most famous televised events. The Hōjō garden, hidden behind the main complex, is a quieter pleasure. The temple shares a hillside with Maruyama Park and is an easy uphill continuation from Yasaka Shrine.