Kinpusen-ji

Temple · Nara

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In short

Founded when En no Gyoja, after a thousand days of retreat on Mount Sanjo, perceived Kongo Zao Daigongen and carved that form into a mountain cherry tree.

A hall in the precinct of Kinpusen-ji at Yoshino. — KENPEI / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Quick facts

Address: 2498 Yoshinoyama, Yoshino, Nara

About this place

Kinpusen-ji is in Yoshino, Nara. In the Hakuho period En no Gyoja, keeping a retreat of a thousand days on Mount Sanjo, the summit of Kinpusen, perceived Kongo Zao Daigongen; and the founding of Kinpusen-ji is transmitted as his carving that form into a mountain cherry tree and enshrining it at the summit of Mount Sanjo and at Yoshinoyama below. En no Gyoja was born on the first day of the first month of 634 at Chihara in Katsuragi-no-kami district, in what is now Chihara in Gose, and ascended on the seventh day of the sixth month of 701. The principal image, Kongo Zao Daigongen, is held to be the three buddhas — Shaka, Kannon and Miroku — coming forth in a wrathful and violent aspect.

Origin and history

In the Hakuho period En no Gyoja, keeping a retreat of a thousand days on Mount Sanjo, the summit of Kinpusen, perceived Kongo Zao Daigongen.

He carved that form into a mountain cherry tree and enshrined it at the summit of Mount Sanjo and at Yoshinoyama below; this is transmitted as the founding of Kinpusen-ji.

En no Gyoja was born on the first day of the first month of 634 at Chihara in Katsuragi-no-kami district, in what is now Chihara in Gose, and ascended on the seventh day of the sixth month of 701.

What it is locally associated with

Origin
A thousand days, and a perception
En no Gyoja kept a retreat of a thousand days on Mount Sanjo and perceived Kongo Zao Daigongen.
folk tradition
Origin
Carved into a mountain cherry
He carved that form into a mountain cherry tree and enshrined it at the summit of Mount Sanjo and at Yoshinoyama below.
folk tradition
Power spot
Three buddhas in a wrathful aspect
Kongo Zao Daigongen is held to be Shaka, Kannon and Miroku coming forth in a wrathful and violent aspect.
folk tradition

The principal image here is not an existing buddha. It is the three buddhas — Shaka, Kannon and Miroku — coming forth in a wrathful and violent aspect, perceived by En no Gyoja at the end of a thousand-day retreat. Not an image somebody brought, but a form that appeared as the result of practice: that is how the temple explains it.

What he carved it into was a mountain cherry. Yoshino is known as a mountain of cherry blossom, and the material of the principal image is that same cherry. The carved figure was enshrined in two places, at the summit of Mount Sanjo and at Yoshinoyama below.

En no Gyoja’s name appears elsewhere on this list. Tenkawa Daibenzaiten in Nara records that the opening of Tenkawa was by En no Gyoja, and Muro-ji transmits that En no Gyoja Ozunu first built a temple on its site. As the founder of Shugendo, one man stands at the beginning of several mountain places here.

The temple gives his dates outright: born on the first day of the first month of 634 at Chihara in Katsuragi-no-kami, and ascended on the seventh day of the sixth month of 701.

The temple’s account states no benefit, so this page carries no tag for what may be prayed for.

Claims and evidence levels 2

The founding is transmitted as En no Gyoja perceiving Kongo Zao Daigongen after a thousand-day retreat on Mount Sanjo and carving the form into a mountain cherry tree. folk tradition
The temple gives En no Gyoja’s birth as the first day of the first month of 634 at Chihara in Katsuragi-no-kami, and his ascent as the seventh day of the sixth month of 701. documented history

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