is a Shingi Shingon Buddhist temple of the

Buzan-ha is a sect of Shingon Buddhism founded in the 16th century by the priest . The main Buzan-ha temple is Hase-dera in Sakurai, Nara. Today the Buzan-ha sect has 3000 temples, 5000 priests and two million followers. Its largest chapters outside Japa ...

located halfway up a mountainside in the town of

Mashiko, Tochigi 270px, Kiln in Mashiko is a town located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 21,841 in 7914 households, and a population density of 240 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Mashiko is known for i ...

, Japan. Built in 737 and rebuilt in 1492, it is one of the four oldest temples in eastern Japan. It is the only temple where one can see a statue of a laughing

Enma In East Asian and Buddhist mythology, Yama () or King Yan-lo/Yan-lo Wang (), also known as King Yan/Yan Wang (), Grandfatherly King Yan (), Lord Yan (), and Yan-lo, Son of Heaven (), is the King of Hell and a dharmapala (wrathful god) said ...

, the Judge of Hell. The temple also has a stand of ''shikeidake,'' a decorative bamboo originally from China with four-sided, rather than round, stalks that grow to 30 feet in height. Saimyō-ji has been designated an Important Cultural Property by the Government of Japan.

References

Buddhist temples in Tochigi Prefecture Tochigi Prefecture designated tangible cultural property Designated historic sites of Tochigi Prefecture {{Buddhist-temple-stub