Sennyū-ji Temple

Overview

Sennyū-ji is the head temple of the Sennyū-ji branch of Shingon Buddhism, located in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. Its principal images are a trinity of Buddhas—Shakyamuni, Amida, and Miroku—and for centuries the temple has served as a mausoleum for members of the Imperial House of Japan, earning it the honorific name Mitera, the "Imperial Temple." Tradition holds that Kūkai founded it in the Heian period, and it was revived in the Kamakura period by the monk Shunjō.

Highlights

• ●The Reimeiden hall, which enshrines memorial tablets of successive emperors, empresses, and imperial family members
• ●The temple's principal trinity of Shakyamuni, Amida, and Miroku Buddhas
• ●The Yōkihi Kannon hall, counted as the 20th site of the Luoyang Thirty-Three Kannon Pilgrimage
• ●A temple precinct at the foot of Mount Tsukinowa holding imperial tombs from the Kamakura era to the late Edo period

History

Tradition attributes the founding to Kūkai in the Heian period, but the temple's effective founder was the Kamakura-period monk Gachirin Daishi Shunjō, who revived it as a place of combined study in the Tendai, Esoteric, Zen, and Pure Land schools. It became a place of deep imperial devotion, and its precinct holds the tombs of emperors from Go-Horikawa and Shijō in the Kamakura period through Go-Mizunoo to Kōmei in the Edo period. It was formerly written as Sen-yū-ji.

Map

34.9781, 135.7806 · Wikidata

Suggested itinerary

1. 1Visit the main halls of the head temple and pay respects before the trinity of Buddhas
2. 2Walk through the Reimeiden, which enshrines the imperial memorial tablets, and its surroundings
3. 3Visit the Yōkihi Kannon hall on the Luoyang Thirty-Three Kannon Pilgrimage route
4. 4Extend the visit to sub-temples at the foot of Mount Tsukinowa such as Imakumano Kannon-ji and Sokujō-in

Did you know?

💡 Because it serves as a mausoleum for the imperial family, Sennyū-ji is respectfully known as Mitera, the "Imperial Temple."

Nearby spots