UJI, Kyoto Prefecture--Three days a week, a historic Zen temple here transforms itself into a restaurant serving a limited number of vegan ramen bowls.

On a recent day, when the clock hit 11 a.m., staff at Hozoin Temple came out and placed a tag that says, “We are open, serving 'terasoba' (temple noodles),” at the temple gate and at the entrance of its “hondo” main hall.

One by one, those who made a reservation entered a tatami room in the main hall.

“I’ve never had ramen like this,” said Fukuko Sudo, 79, a resident of Kyoto’s Fushimi Ward who enjoyed a bowl of ramen that looked like carbonara spaghetti. “It sinks deep into my soul.”

The dish uses an abundance of miso and soymilk, which the temple purchased from a nearby tofu shop.

Sudo said she will absolutely come back for another meal.

Normally, the main hall is closed to the public, but from Thursday to Saturday, the hall welcomes ramen lovers and serves up to 30 bowls per day.

The broth changes according to the seasons.

Following the Buddhist vegetarian cooking tradition, which prohibits the killing of animals, the temple serves vegan ramen.

Typical ramen uses "tonkotsu" (pork bone) or "torigara" (chicken carcass) for the broth, but the temple ramen does not use any animal products. Char-siu (Chinese-style barbecued pork), another ingredient typically found in a bowl of ramen, is also not on the menu.

Five toppings are available, such as menma bamboo shoots, corn, wakame seaweed, tremellales and red pepper.

The selection is based on a Buddhist teaching, called “goshiki” (the five colors)--blue, yellow, red, white and black.

In Buddhism, the colors represent the spirit and wisdom of Buddha, and they are used for offerings.

Kodo Morii, 73, master of the temple, sometimes comes out and helps add toppings to the dishes.

Morii said the temple developed the ramen recipe on its own, and Magaw, a Taiwanese spice that looks like black pepper, is “the decisive factor” in the taste of the temple ramen.

17th-CENTURY PRINTING BLOCKS

Hozoin is one of many temples built on the premises of Manpukuji, the head temple of Obakushu, a sect that Ingen (1592-1673), a Chinese Zen master, started.

It owns important cultural assets called “Tetsugenban issaikyo hangi,” or 60,000 or so printing blocks that can print all the Buddhist sutras.

Tetsugen Doko (1630-1682), who opened Hozoin during the Edo Period (1603-1867), wanted a set of the printing blocks in Japan.

Ingen provided the temple with about 7,000 volumes of Buddhist sutras as a copytext.

The printing blocks were completed in 1681 after many hardships.

Until then, people used to manually copy the Buddhist sutras, and the mass printing helped spread Buddhism.

However, the 60,000 historical printing blocks have been piled in a storage room that is more than 60 years old and has no cooling or heating system.

The temple asked the Kyoto prefectural government and the Cultural Affairs Agency to provide support for studying and preserving the blocks.

At the same time, the temple considered hosting a tea ceremony and a sutra-copying event to cover the rehabilitation and conservation costs.

RAMEN FOR ALL SEASONS

In February 2020, the temple launched the Tetsugen Project and started promoting their conservation work.

Initially, the temple thought about developing temple sweets, but a volunteer who formerly worked as a food consultant offered to make ramen.

People in the project thought it would be an interesting offering for a temple.

There also happened to be a monk certified to supervise food sanitation.

They decided to cook ramen inside a tent on the temple grounds and obtained a business permit from a public health center in October this year.

After two months of trial and error, the “restaurant” quietly opened on the temple grounds.

It received only one customer on the first day.

However, word of mouth and social media posts soon drew in more crowds of people who love eating ramen.

Revenue from the ramen sales will be used to cover the printing blocks’ conservation and reparation.

“Our challenge is teaching people about the printing blocks as well as our ramen,” Morii said.

Morii said giving ramen customers a tour of the main hall would be a good idea to try from now.

He also hopes the customers will return as the temple offers seasonal ramen with different broths.

For example, the miso and soymilk ramen for winter will be served until March 21.

After that, ramen with a thin soy sauce for spring will be offered until May 5, followed by a salt-based one for summer and a thick soy sauce one for fall.

The restaurant is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in principle.

However, it closes each day after it sells 30 bowls. The price is 600 yen ($4.45) per bowl, including tax.

A reservation by phone (0774-31-8026) is recommended. Customers can see the main hall before or after eating.