Daigo-ji

Quick facts

Address

22 Daigo Higashiojicho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto

Spiritual entities

Avalokiteśvara (Kannon · Gwaneum, 観音菩薩)

About this place

Daigo-ji, in Fushimi, Kyoto, was founded in 874 by Shobo Rigen Daishi, who carved images of Juntei and Nyoirin Kannon himself and consecrated them as the temple’s first act. The temple records that Emperor Daigo obtained a son through prayer to Juntei Kannon — the boy became Emperor Suzaku, and a second Emperor Murakami followed — and that the emperor took Daigo as his own posthumous name. The spring that gave the temple its name still runs.

Origin and history

By the temple’s account, Shobo Rigen Daishi founded Daigo-ji in 874. He carved images of Juntei and Nyoirin Kannon himself and consecrated them, making that the first step of the founding.

The name comes from a tradition of the founding. An old man Shobo met on the summit drank from a rising spring and said: sweet dew, sweet dew — what a taste of daigo this is. The water is called Daigo-sui and has never run dry.

Emperor Daigo obtained a son through prayer to Juntei Kannon; that son became Emperor Suzaku, and Emperor Murakami followed. The emperor took Daigo as his own posthumous name, and his consort Onshi also became a devotee, so the temple’s buildings advanced.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotFertility & Children

  A son through prayer to Juntei Kannon

  The temple records that Emperor Daigo obtained a son — later Emperor Suzaku — through prayer to Juntei Kannon.

  documented history

• Origin

  "What a taste of daigo this is"

  The words of an old man drinking spring water on the summit are told as the origin of the temple’s name.

  folk tradition

• Power spot

  Daigo-sui still rises

  The spring that gave the temple its name has never run dry.

  documented history

What was clearly prayed for at this temple was a child. The temple records that Emperor Daigo prayed to Juntei Kannon and obtained a son, and that the son became Emperor Suzaku.

What happened next is told by a name. The emperor took Daigo as his own posthumous name — he called himself after the place that had answered. His consort Onshi became a devotee too, and the building work went on.

The temple’s name itself comes from a taste. Daigo is the finest distillate of milk, and from there the word for the height of flavour. An old man drinking spring water on the summit said "what a taste of daigo this is", and the temple has been called that ever since.

Related guides

• How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
• What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
• Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
• Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.

Sources

1. 醍醐寺の歴史 — 醍醐寺 — Daigo-ji (accessed 2026-08-13)