: ''You may also be looking for the voice actor

Kōichi Yamadera is a Japanese actor, narrator and singer from Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture. He graduated from Tohoku Gakuin University's economics school and is currently affiliated with Across Entertainment. Before that, he was affiliated with the Tokyo Acto ...

.''

(山号宝珠山; ''Sangō Hōshu-zan'') is the popular name for the

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 ...

of located northeast of Yamagata, in

Yamagata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It has a population of 1,005,926 (1 February 2025) and an area of 9,325 Square kilometre, km2 (3,600 Square mile, sq mi). Its neighbours are Akita Prefectu ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Its main image is a ''

hibutsu are Japanese Buddhist icons or statues concealed from public view. ''Hibutsu'' are generally located within Buddhist temples in shrines called . They are unavailable for viewing or worship except for certain religious ceremonies. It is possible i ...

'' statue of

Yakushi Nyorai Bhaiṣajyaguru (, zh, t= , , , , ), or ''Bhaishajyaguru'', formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabha-rāja ("Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light"; zh, t=藥師琉璃光(王)如來, , , ), is the Buddha of healing and medicine i ...

. The temple has been a place for pilgrimage for centuries, and is designated as both a Place of Scenic Beauty and as a National Historic Site It is located within the borders of the Zaō Quasi-National Park. The temple buildings clinging to the steep, forested, rocky hillsides are picturesque and unusual.

History

According to temple tradition, it was founded in 860 AD by the priest

Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and ...

, who is better known by his posthumous name, . In 847 AD Ennin returned to Japan from studies in

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

China and in 854 AD he became the chief priest of the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

sect at

Enryaku-ji is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was first founded in 788 during the early Heian period (794–1185) by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana ...

on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto. Risshaku-ji was founded as a branch temple of Enryaku-ji by the order of

Emperor Seiwa was the 56th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 清和天皇 (56)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Seiwa's reign spanned the years from 858 through 876. Traditional narrative Seiwa was the fourth ...

, and to this day the ritual fire brought from Enryaku-ji is still burning in the main temple. The exact date and circumstances of the foundation of the temple are uncertain, but it dates to at least the early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

based on dating of the oldest of its surviving wooden statuary. The temple has a long-standing tradition that it houses the grave of Ennin in a cave within the temple grounds. Although Ennin died on Mount Hiei in 864 AD, and there is no record that his remains were transferred here, an archaeological investigation in 1948 found a gold-leaf encrusted casket containing five sets of human remains and fragments of a Heian period wooden statue of Ennin within the cave. The temple developed into the major

center for Buddhism in

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...

(now Yamagata and Akita prefectures).Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan vol. 6 p. 320 and 321, 1983 The temple was patronized by the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...

and grew in territory. It was rebuilt after a fire in the mid-13th century and was converted to

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

. The current Main Hall, known here as the ''Konpon-chūdō'' was rebuilt in 1356 by Shiba Kaneyori, lord of

Yamagata Castle is a flatland-style Japanese castle located in the center of the city of Yamagata, Yamagata, Yamagata, eastern Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Throughout the Edo period, Yamagata Castle was the headquarters for the ''daimyō'' of Yamagata Domain. The ...

, who also returned it to the Tendai sect. It was visited by the artist

Sesshū Tōyō , also known simply as , was a Japanese Zen monk and painter who is considered a great master of Japanese ink painting. Initially inspired by Chinese landscapes, Sesshū's work holds a distinctively Japanese style that reflects Zen Buddhist ae ...

in 1482, who made many sketches of its precincts. The temple was burned down again during the wars of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, but was restored by the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date fam ...

and the

Mogami clan were Japanese ''daimyōs'', and were a branch of the Ashikaga family. In the Sengoku period, they were the Sengoku ''daimyōs'' who ruled Dewa Province which is now Yamagata Prefecture and part of Akita Prefecture. The Mogami clan is derived ...

. Under the

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

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 ...

, it was awarded estates with a ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 5 ...

'' of 1420 ''koku'' for its upkeep. Yama-dera is where the well-known

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

poet

Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...

wrote his famous haiku "ah this silence / sinking into the rocks / voice of cicada" in 1689. A museum of Basho's writings and paintings and other related art, the Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum, is a short walk up the hill on the opposite side of the steep valley. In 1996, the Ministry of the Environment selected the

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two ...

s of Yama-dera as one of the

100 Soundscapes of Japan The are a number of noises selected by the Ministry of the Environment (Japan), Ministry of the Environment as particularly representative of the country. They were chosen in 1996, as part of government efforts to combat noise pollution and to prot ...

Important cultural properties

*Building: Konpon-chūdō, built between 1346 and 1370 and repaired in 1608. *Building: Three-storied Miniature Pagoda (height 2.5 meters), built in 1519 and housed in a stone chapel *Monument: Stone stele inscribed with the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...

, dated 1144 *Statue: Yakushi Nyorai, wooden, seated, Heian-period, repaired in 1205. *Statue: Ennin (head portion only), wooden, Heian-period. recovery from alleged grave-tomb of Ennin These historical assets can be seen along the main trail that leads up the mountain along its stone steps. You can also see the remains of the original temple of Yamadera in a course located to the right of the main entrance. Yamadera holds many other important cultural assets in its treasure house, the ''Hihokan'', including standing wooden images of Shaka Nyorai, Yakushi Nyorai and Amida Nyorai, a seated wooden image of Dengyo Daishi, a hanging wooden mandala of Buddha. File:Risshaku-ji Main Hall 201706a.jpg, Konpon-chūdō (main hall) File:Risshakuji approach on winter.jpg, Approach in winter File:View from Yamadera.jpg , View from the top (sutra repository in sight) File:Yamadera 2006 Niō-mon.jpg, Niomon File:Risshaku-ji Okunoin 20130803.jpg, Oku-no-In File:Yamadera 2006 Lantern.jpg, Lantern File:211029 Risshaku-ji Yamagata Yamagata pref Japan103s3.jpg, Three-storied Miniature Pagoda File:Ryūshaku-ji temple, Sendai; August 2018 (01).jpg, The where Ennin is said to have met

Banji Banzaburō was, according to legend, a Japanese hunter and the first ''matagi''. Banji Banzaburō The story of Banji Banzaburō is primarily known from the , a scroll written in 1193 and preserved in Ani, Akita, Ani village. During the reign of Emperor Se ...

Access

Railway

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

–

Senzan Line The is a railway line in Japan. Part of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) system, it runs from Sendai Station (Miyagi), Sendai Station in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture to Uzen-Chitose Station in Yamagata, Yamagata, Yamagata, Yamagata Prefec ...

Yamadera : ''You may also be looking for the voice actor Kōichi Yamadera.'' (山号宝珠山; ''Sangō Hōshu-zan'') is the popular name for the Buddhist temple of located northeast of Yamagata, in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Its main image is a ' ...

(7 minutes' walk away from the entrance to the mountain)

Highway

Yamagata Expressway – , located about 10km from the temple *Yamagata Prefectural Road Route 19 ( 山形県道19号山形山寺線) *Yamagata Prefectural Road Route 62 ( 山形県道62号仙台山寺線)

References

External links

Yamadera Tourism Association
(in Japanese)
Japan Photo Guide: Yamadera
{{Authority control Buddhist temples in Yamagata Prefecture Places of Scenic Beauty Historic Sites of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan 9th-century establishments in Japan 9th-century Buddhist temples Tendai temples Yamagata, Yamagata 860 establishments Religious buildings and structures completed in the 860s