Kimpusen-ji

Kimpusen-ji (金峯山寺, Kinpusen-ji) is the head temple of a branch of the Shugendō religion called Kimpusen-Shugendō in Yoshino district, Nara Prefecture, Japan. According to tradition, it was founded by En no Gyōja, who propagated a form of mountain asceticism drawing from Shinto and Buddhist beliefs.

The temple's main building, the "Zaō-Hall" (Zaōdō) dedicated to Zaō gongen (蔵王権現), is the second largest wooden structure in Japan after the Great Buddha Hall at Tōdai-ji in Nara. Kimpusen-ji is a junction in a series of stops on pilgrimage routes.

A Shinto shrine dedicated to Inari Ōkami is attached to the main compound. In 1963, the Temple constructed a hall named Southern Court Mystic Law Hall (Nanchō Myōhōden) to appease the soul of the four emperors of the Southern Court and others who lost their lives in many battles since the "Northern and Southern Courts period" (Nanboku-chō period, 1336-1392). The principal image is the statue of Gautama Buddha (Shaka Nyōrai).

In 2004, it was designated as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.

Images

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  Gate with guardians

• Kinpusenji nio2.jpg

  Statue of the wrath-filled and muscular guardian Nio

• Kinpusenji zaodo1.jpg

  Zaōdō (Deity: Zaō gongen, "Avatar Zaō")

• Kinpusenji zaodo2.jpg

  entrance of Zaōdō

• Zao-Gongen-Kimpusen-Temple-Yoshino.jpg

  one of the three Zaō-gongen statues in the Zaōdō

• Kinpusenji zaodo3.jpg

  carvings

• Kinpusenji Yoshino Nara08n4272.jpg

  Bell tower (Shorō)

• Kinpusenji Yoshino Nara04n4272.jpg

  Aizendō (deity: Aizen myōō, Sanskr. Rāgarāja)

• Kinpusenji Yoshino Nara03n4272.jpg

  Kannondō (deity: Kannon bosatsu, "Bodhisattva Guanyin")

• Kinpusenji Yoshino Nara06n3200.jpg

  Itoku Tenmangu

• Kinpusenji Inari1.jpg

  Attached Inari shrine (Deity: Hisatomi Daimyōjin)

• Kinpusenji Inari3.jpg

  Inari shrine

• Kinpusenji nanchomyohoden1.jpg

  Nanchō myōhō-den

• En no gyoja-Kimpusen-ji.JPG

  Statue of En no Gyōja near the Nanchō myōhō-den

See also

• Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range
• Shugendō
• List of National Treasures of Japan (temples)
• Tourism in Japan

External links

• Official website
• Live camera, Kimpusen-ji, Zaōdō