Amida-do at Daisenji Temple

 

High on Mount Daisen was a major Shugendo site centred on Daisenji Temple.

At its peak, it had a huge number of sub-temples and other structures in three distinct areas, though with the separation of Buddhas and Kami followed by the suppression of Buddhism in early Meiji, they have been reduced to only 10 from 42.

In the former Saimyoin area the Amida Hall remains.

An earlier building was destroyed by a flood, but this version was built in 1552, and used some of the wood that was salvaged from the original.

The Amida statue inside was carved in the 12th century, and along with a pair of attendant statues and the hall itself, is an Important Cultural Property.

Behind the Amida Hall is a stone torii, all that remains of a Sanbo Koshin Shrine.

Sanbo Koshin is a Buddhist deity created in Japan. Sanbo refers to the three treasures of Buddhism, and Sanbo Koshin is a deity that protects the three treasures.

With a Buddhist deity, the shrine was destroyed in the early Meiji.

A path leads through the forest to the Sada River, with the other parts of the temple complex on the other side. There is now a road bridge just downstream, but the river can be crossed on foot most of the time.

Upstream, the banks of the river are lined with piles of stones. This is Sai no Kawara, a boundary between the world of the living and the dead where children who die before their parents wait and pile the stones before being saved by Jizo, the primary deity of Daisenji Temple.

The previous post was on the Yokai Temple Enjuin with 108 paintings by Mizuki Shigeru.

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