Holding a Mokumoku Session at a Kyoto Temple: Creating a Place for Engineers to Focus
On January 24, 2026, Miyako de IT held Miyako Mokumoku Session #54 at Butsugenji in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto. Co-hosted with Digital Nomad Kyoto, the session brought together local participants and visitors from overseas.
This is an experience report about using a temple as the venue for a mokumoku session. For the format itself, how to join, and the usual schedule, see What Is a Mokumoku Session?.
About Butsugenji
Butsugenji is a Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha temple with 14 generations of history and one of Miyako de IT's regular venues. It stands on Rokkaku Street, about five minutes on foot from Karasuma Oike Station. Working with a laptop on the tatami of its main hall creates an experience distinctive to Kyoto.
The temple runs the Tomarigi Project, opening its grounds as a place for local people to meet. Its aim of creating an open neighborhood space aligned with the community's aim of creating a place where IT engineers in Kyoto can gather and learn from one another. That shared purpose has sustained the temple sessions.
Schedule on the day
10:00 — Doors open and introductionsAbout seven people attended. Alongside Japanese IT engineers, remote workers from the United States, France, and Germany joined through Digital Nomad Kyoto. Introductions used both Japanese and English.
10:30 — Focused work beginsEach person worked on an individual project. In the quiet main hall, the sound of keyboards stood out. The cool air and faint scent of incense contributed to the focused atmosphere.
Projects included:
- Developing a Next.js application.
- Building a machine-learning model in Python.
- Developing an IoT item with Raspberry Pi.
- Designing in Figma.
- Writing a blog article.
The group ate at a nearby restaurant and discussed technology, life in Kyoto, and remote work in other countries.
14:00 — CloseTemple events are not a one-off experiment
Twenty-three Miyako de IT events are recorded with Butsugenji as their venue. They continued from Miyako Mokumoku Session #28 in April 2024 through #58 in May 2026. Every regular mokumoku session in that period was co-hosted with Digital Nomad Kyoto. The temple also hosted year-end parties in 2024 and 2025 and the AI Ghost Story Short Contest in September 2025.
Butsugenji is not the only temple venue. On May 23, 2026, Miyako de IT held session #57 at Daikoji in Fushimi Ward. Daikoji is a Jodo-shu temple founded in 1260 and is five minutes on foot from Keihan Fushimi-Momoyama Station. Across Miyako de IT as a whole, 165 events have been held since the community began in February 2019, and temples have become part of its core venue network.
Why a temple can support concentration
A temple's main hall is wooden, high-ceilinged, and relatively insulated from outside noise. There is no cafe music or coworking chatter. Passing through the gate, removing shoes, and entering the hall also creates a sequence that can act as a ritual for switching into work mode.
Participant observations
At Butsugenji sessions, participants have said that they could concentrate better than during an ordinary workday and that writing code in a temple seemed to make them more deliberate about design. Some people become sleepy when sitting formally on tatami, so organizers provide both floor cushions and chairs. International engineers have responded especially positively to the experience of attending a meetup in a Japanese temple.
Temple mokumoku Q&A
Can I attend if I do not know temple etiquette?Yes. Participants simply work on their own projects in the main hall. Any venue-specific instructions appear on the event registration page.
Is there a participation fee?When a venue fee applies, participation may cost about ¥500–¥1,000. Check the registration page for each event.
Related articles
- Temples as IT Hubs
- Continuing IT Study Sessions at Butsugenji
- Miyako Mokumoku Session #57 at Daikoji
- What Is a Mokumoku Session?
- Kyoto IT Community Whitepaper 2026
Miyako de IT holds two or three events a month. Register through connpass. Beginners and solo participants are welcome. Bring a laptop and experience writing code in a Kyoto temple.
Upcoming dates are also available on the official site.
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Source data
The figures cited in this article are based on primary data in the Miyako de IT annual statistics report. It publishes yearly event counts, venue distribution, and event-format data.
Written by
Tomohiro Iida