is an important temple of the

Shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn prim ...

religion in the village of Tenkawa, Yoshino district,

Nara prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

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 ...

. It is located at the Sanjōgatake peak of

Mount Ōmine , is a sacred mountain in Nara, Japan, famous for its three tests of courage. Officially known as , it is more popularly known as Mount Ōmine due to its prominence in the Ōmine mountain range. It is located in Yoshino-Kumano National Park in ...

. Along with Kinpusen-ji, it is considered the most important temple in Shugendō. From 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 ...

to the present, women have been prohibited from entering the

sacred mountain Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many reli ...

. The precincts were designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2002.

Overview

According to tradition, the temple was established in at the end of the 7th century by En no Gyōja, the founder of Shugendō, a form of mountain asceticism drawing from

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

beliefs. The main hall is located near the summit of Sanjōgatake (1719.2 meters), located in the middle of the Ōmine Mountain Range, and enshrines

Zaō Gongen A , literally "incarnation", was believed to be the manifestation of a buddha in the form of an indigenous kami, an entity who had come to guide the people to salvation, during the era of shinbutsu-shūgō in premodern Japan.Encyclopedia of Shin ...

. While the main hall (Zaō-dō) of Kinpusen-ji on Mount Yoshino is called "Sange no Zaō-dō," the main hall of Ōminesan-ji is called "Yamagami no Zaō-dō." The two Zaō-dō temples on the mountain and at the bottom of the mountain are more than 20 kilometers apart, and are now separate temples, but originally they were part of a single Shugendō temple called "Kinpusen-ji." It was only in modern times that they were separated. "Kinpusen-san" and "Ōmine-san" do not refer to individual peaks, but to the mountains as a place of faith and training. "Kinpusen-san" refers to the entire sacred mountain area from Mount Yoshino to Sanjōgatake, and the group of temples scattered there was collectively called "Kinpusen-ji." On the other hand, "Ōminesan" is a general term for the mountains of the Ōmine mountain range, including Mt. Daifugen, Mt. Misen, Mt. Hakkyogatake, and Mt. Shakagatake. The 80-kilometer road from Mt. Yoshino through the Ōmine mountain range to Kumano Hongū Taisha in

Tanabe, Wakayama Tanabe (, Latn, ja, Tanabe-shi, ) is a Cities of Japan, city located in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 70,972 in 35,076 households and a population density of 69 persons per km2. The total area of the city i ...

is called the "Ōmine Okugake Trail" and is a training route for ascetic monks. Much of the early history of Ōminesan-ji is unclear. In the

Tenpyō was a after '' Jinki'' and before ''Tenpyō-kanpō.'' This period spanned the years from August 729 through April 749. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 729 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The p ...

era (729-749),

Gyōki was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Nara period, born in Ōtori county, Kawachi Province (now Sakai, Osaka), the son of Koshi no Saichi. According to one theory, one of his ancestors was of Korean descent. Gyōki became a monk at Asuka-d ...

is said to have carried out a major renovation, and by some legends say built Kinpusen-ji at the foot of the mountain as the Zaō-dō Hall at the top of Ōminesan was difficult to access. Although they went into decline in the early

, it was revived by the

Shingon is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...

Buddhist monk Shōbō (Rigen Daishi) at the end of the 9th century, and since the 10th century, it has been visited by many members of the

imperial family A royal family is the immediate family of monarch, monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or emperor, empress, and the term papal family describes the family of ...

and

aristocrats Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...

Fujiwara no Michinaga was a Japanese statesman. The Fujiwara clan's control over Japan and its politics reached its zenith under his leadership. Early life Michinaga was born in Kyōto, the son of Kaneie. Kaneie had become Regent in 986, holding the position unt ...

offered sutras in a gilt bronze container in

buried in a mound near the mountain top, which was excavated and designated a

National Treasure A national treasure is a structure, artifact, object or cultural work that is officially or popularly recognized as having particular value to the nation, or representing the ideals of the nation. The term has also been applied to individuals or ...

in August 11, 2007 During 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 ...

, the main hall was burned down in a conflict with the Ikko sect, but it was rebuilt in 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 ...

. In 1614,

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

ordered

Tenkai was an influential Japanese Tendai Buddhist monk of the Azuchi-Momoyama and early Edo periods. He achieved the rank of ''Daisōjō'', the highest rank of the Tendai priesthood and was an influential advisor to various Shoguns, including To ...

, a

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 ...

Buddhist monk (the founder of

Kan'ei-ji (also spelled Kan'eiji or Kaneiji) is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1625 during the Kan'ei era by Tenkai, in an attempt to emulate the powerful religious center Enryaku-ji, in Kyoto. The main object of worship is .Nihon ...

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

and other temples), to become head of Kinpusen-ji and Ōminesan-ji. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, the

Shinbutsu Bunri The Japanese term indicates the separation of Shinto from Buddhism, introduced after the Meiji Restoration which separated Shinto ''kami'' from buddhas, and also Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, which were originally amalgamated. It is a ...

abolished the syncretic Shinto-Buddhist beliefs that had been practiced throughout the country for many centuries, and Shugendō was officially suppressed. From 1871, the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

declared Kinpusen-ji and Ōminesan-ji to be a

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

. In 1886, the Kinpusen-ji and Ōminesan-ji reverted to Buddhism, and the two locations were separated into Kinpusen-ji at the foot of the mountains and Ōminesan-ji at the top. In 2004, Ōminesan-ji was designated as part of a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

under the name ''

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the Kii Peninsula in Japan. Selection criteria The locations and paths for this heritage site were based on their historical and modern im ...

''.

Precincts

There is a ridge path from Mount Yoshino to the main hall of Ōminesan-ji, but general worshippers climb Sanjōgatake from Dorogawa in Tenkawa Village at the foot of the mountain. It takes about four hours on foot from Dorogawa. Even from the trailhead, Ōmine Ōhashi Bridge, it takes about three hours to climb one way. The sanctuary around the Sanjōgatake peak () has long been considered sacred in Shugendō, and women are not allowed in the area beyond four "gates" on the route to the peak. On the neighboring Inamuragatake peak (), altitude 1,726 m, it has been opened as a place of training for female believers since 1959, thus called .The mountain trail from Ōmine Ōhashi Bridge to the main hall of Ōminesan-ji is well-maintained, and several teahouses have been set up along the way. A short distance from Ōmine OŌhashi Bridge, past the ruins of Ichinose Teahouse and Ipponmatsu Teahouse, is a water source called "En no Gyoja Osuke Mizu." Further on is Dorotsuji Teahouse, where the trail joins with the Ōmine Ōkugake Trail from Mount Yoshino. Further ahead are two teahouses called Daranisuke Teahouse, built by a pharmacy at the foot of the mountain (which manufactures and sells a medicine called "Daranisukemaru"). All of the teahouses are built to cover the mountain trail, so it is always necessary to pass through the buildings. Beyond that are difficult chain sections (ascetic practice areas) called "Abura Koboshi," "Kanekakeiwa," and "Nishi no Nozoki." The most famous of these is the "Nishi no Nozoki" practice area, where pilgrims lean over the edge of a cliff with a safety rope. There are safe detours at all difficult sections. Behind the main hall is the "Ura no Gyojo," where pilgrims train without safety ropes on a cliff without chains. At Nishi no Nozoki, safety ropes are held by a guide, and entry to the Ura practice area is prohibited without the guidance of a guide.

Cultural properties

Important Cultural Properties

*Main Hall (Zaō-dō) - Rebuilt in 1691. It is a hipped-gabled building measuring approximately 23 x 19 meters and 13 meters high. Copper tiles and copper sheet roofing. The inner sanctuary was built in 1691, but the outer sanctuary was expanded in 1706.

Notes and references

External links