The former Buddhist temple sits opposite a waterfall on the campus of Furman University, with vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains when the trees are bare.
On dark winter mornings, students will be asked to sit on the "hinoki" (cypress) floors and meditate for 90 minutes. A class called Realizing Bodymind will be taught there next semester.
The structure — donated by a Japanese family with roots in the textile past of Greenville, S.C., and connections to a university professor — symbolizes an evolution for the private liberal arts school. Founded in 1826 by the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Furman is recasting itself as a regional center for Far Eastern studies.