Virtual Miki County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #31 Gaya-in Temple

 

     According to temple tradition, Daikei-ji Temple was founded in 645 by Hermit Hodo as an Imperial prayer temple of Emperor Karu (596-654).  It was also called Toichi-bo.  It was the first year of the Taika Era (645-650), when the emperor started his reform to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the Imperial Court.

     Hodo is a legendary figure said to have flown from India to Japan on a cloud.  Given the numerous temples in Southern Hyogo Prefecture with Hodo founding legends, there could have been mountain ascetics who served as a model or models for Hodo existed, regardless of whether they actually flew from India.  Similar to other temples with Hodo founding legends, the exact date and circumstances of the temple's founding remain unclear.

     Around the 11th century, the temple flourished, boasting dozens of halls and over 130 monks' quarters, and Emperor Kazan (968-1008) is recorded to have visited the temple.

     When the Battle of Miki was fought between Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and Bessho Nagaharu (1558-1580) from 1578 to 1580,, Nagaharu's forces were stationed in the temple.  It caught fire and suffered great damage.  Then, in 1609, another fire broke out, burning down all the temple buildings except for the fortress-like stone walls.  The existing temple buildings were donated by feudal lords after 1610.

     In 1681, by Imperial decree of Emperor Gosai (1638-1685), the temple was renamed Gaya-in, after Bodh Gaya in today's Bihar, India.

     From the medieval period onward, it held influence as a Shugendo temple affiliated with Shogo-in Temple.  During the Edo Period (1603-1868), it wielded considerable power in the Shugendo society as one of the 4 leading temples of the Tiantai-Sect Ascetics.  Even today, on Health and Sports Day in October, numerous Shugendo practitioners gather from all over Japan, and the largest-scale Big Bonfire Koma Ritual in the Kansai Region is held.

     The entrance fee of Gaya-in Temple is to weed 10 stalks of grass.

Address: Otani-410 Shijimicho, Miki, Hyogo 673-0513

Phone: 0794-87-3906

Shogo-in Temple

Address: 15 Shogoin Nakamachi, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, 606-8324

Phone: 075-771-1880

Shakuzen-in Temple

Address: Shogoin Nakamachi, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, 606-8324