is a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. It stands on Mount Takao to the northwest of the center of the city. The temple adheres to Shingon Buddhism. Its principal image is a statue of Bhaisajyaguru (''Yakushi Nyorai''), the Buddha of Healing or "Medicine Buddha". The temple was first established in the year 824, as a merger of two private temples founded earlier by Wake no Kiyomaro. They were the Jingan-ji (神願寺) in Kiyomaro's home province and the Takaosan-ji (高雄山寺).

Treasures

Jingo-ji holds sixteen National Treasures of Japan."Takaosan, Jingoji Buddhist Temple" (leaflet published by Jingo-ji) They include the ''honzon'' and other statues. Another treasure is a list written by

Kūkai , born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...

in 812 called the and displays some of Kukai's talent for calligraphy. This list contains people and deities in 812 who underwent the abhisheka at Takaosan-ji presided by

. The Buddhist Sutra "Bimashōkyō", translated by Guṇabhadra, was handed down at the temple. It is "one of the a volume from the Issaikyō (a Buddhist corpus), commonly known as Jingo-ji kyō, the corpus originally consisted of more than 5,400 volumes in total, but only 2,317 still remain as the rest were scattered outside the temple."

Buildings

Buildings at Jingo-ji have been destroyed by fire and war. Of the original buildings, only the Daishi-dō survived the Ōnin War; even the present Daishi-dō is of uncertain date. Itakura Katsushige, a ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' and former Kyoto shoshidai in the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

, commissioned a major reconstruction in 1623. Another reconstruction took place in the 1930s with a contribution from Gendō Yamaguchi. Present structures include the following: * Rōmon (1623) * Kondō (金堂, 1934), housing the central image of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing. *Bishamon-dō (1623) *Godai-dō (五大堂, 1623), housing statues of Fudō Myōō and other wrathful deities. *Bell tower (1623) *Daishi-dō (大師堂, date unrecorded) * Tahōtō (1934) The temple is located above the , and has a special built on the grounds. Visitors can purchase tiny plates made of clay to throw out from the famous cliffs, the , overlooking Kiyotaki River, with the hopes of one's plate hitting the river far below. Buses from the center of the city arrive at a stop alongside the road. A long set of stairs leads down to the river, and a short bridge leads across it. A similar set of stairs leads up to the gate of the temple.

References

* . {{Authority control Buddhist temples in Kyoto Important Cultural Properties of Japan Kōyasan Shingon temples Temples of Bhaiṣajyaguru

Treasures

Buildings

See also

References