A painter laid out this garden, or so the tradition holds, and in November the garden repays the attribution. The Sesshu garden at Joeiji — a national historic site and place of scenic beauty, credited to the fifteenth-century master — holds its colour from late October to late November. A band of more than a month is unusual for a single garden, and it lasts because the planting is mixed rather than uniform.

What makes it read differently from other temple gardens in autumn is the bamboo. A stand of it rises behind the pond, so the red sits against vertical green rather than against sky or wall. Sit in the main hall and the whole thing composes into a single picture. Walk the path around the pond and it comes apart into a dozen of them.

There is a night viewing in the middle of November, from six until nine in the evening. The lamplit garden and the daylit garden are two different works. The grounds are small enough that an hour is enough, which is worth knowing if you are combining the visit with the Ouchi-era sites nearby in the same afternoon.

From November the temple opens at eight and closes at half past four, with last entry at four. It is ten minutes by car from Yamaguchi station, about the same from the Yamaguchi interchange, and admission is five hundred yen. Take the seat in the main hall first. Five centuries on, it is still the painter's best viewpoint.