about
Tsukiwa
Not a tour, but a journey into awareness
"Tsukiwa" comes from the Gion Kouta — tsuki wa, oboro ni Higashiyama.
The moon, hazy above the Eastern Hills.
The line does not finish. It simply stops there. That is what we hope to do: not to say everything, but to leave a place for your own experience.
And the moon is among the oldest of Buddhist figures. The pointing finger, the sutra says — leave the finger, and the moon appears. Every method is only a finger.
The Moon Within, a Land of Practice
In this image, the moon and the Eastern Hills each point somewhere. The moon points to the nature of the mind within; Higashiyama grounds that insight in a landscape shaped by centuries of practice.
The name Gion, too, reaches back to Jetavana — the grove where the Buddha taught for many years. A single name, quietly echoing a lineage across time.
The Moon in Zen
In the Zen tradition, the moon stands for a wisdom that is quiet and bright, native to every mind.
Clouds may cover it; it may seem to vanish into the dark. Yet even in the hardest hours it is there, shining without a sound. Full or waning, its nature does not change.
The Eastern Hills that overlook Kyoto hold Nanzen-ji, Tofuku-ji and Ginkaku-ji — for centuries the spiritual heart of the city's Zen culture. And the name Tsukiwa echoes, from further back still, the East Mountain teaching of Hongren, the Fifth Patriarch — a stream of practice that shaped Japanese Zen itself.
A Finger Pointing to Your Own Mind
Tsukiwa was founded to be a gentle kind of guidance.
Like a finger that points at nothing outside you — only toward your own mind: already whole, already complete, quiet and at ease.
Through mindful temple walks, meditation and one-to-one guidance, we invite you to slow down, to observe, to reconnect with that clarity. It is not a concept to be understood, but a reality to be experienced directly.
To those drawn to stillness, to depth, to living with a clearer mind — you are warmly welcome.
Dr. Belinda
PhD in Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK. Based in Kyoto.
Driven by a search for meaning in life, she spent many years as a Buddhist monastic — ten years practising in a Chan Buddhist community of around a thousand people, followed by ten years of study and research in the West. Her doctoral research focused on mindfulness in Chan monastic life.
Rooted in Chan practice and mindfulness, her work draws on perspectives from psychology and cultural studies. She explores questions of self-worth, identity, and how people find meaning in their lives.
Through teaching, interviews and writing, she shares people’s stories and their ways of seeing the world. Through sincere connection and dialogue, she hopes to help people understand themselves more deeply and recognise the beauty already present in their lives.
- Research-informed
- Everything we say can be traced to its source. Theories are named and attributed; classical references are checked against the originals.
- Experience-based
- Understanding is not read; it is walked. Kinhin is how we place the theory in your hands.
- Transformation-oriented
- Not an afternoon of relaxation, but an attention you can keep using.
- Operated by
- FOIGA
- Based in
- Kyoto, Japan
- Sister brand
- FOIGA Photography
Travel to transform.
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