Ryosenji Temple

A Temple on Mount Tomi Said to Date from 736

The Ryosenji Temple (霊山寺) on Mount Tomi in Nakamachi, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, is a temple dedicated in 736 according to its own tradition, whose main hall of 1283 is a National Treasure and whose three-storied pagoda and bell tower are Important Cultural Properties.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs introduces it as a temple said to have been founded by the monk Gyoki (668 to 749) at the command of Emperor Shomu. The name is read Ryosenji, not Reizanji.

The temple says it holds six buildings that are National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties, and more than 30 designated Buddhist images and treasures. Besides the main hall, pagoda and bell tower, the designated buildings include the shrine halls of the former guardian shrine, the Jurokusho Shrine, on the rise north of the main hall, which has been an independent shrine since the separation of Shinto and Buddhism in the Meiji era.

Origins and History

The temple's own account begins with Ono no Tomihito, said to be a son of the envoy Ono no Imoko, who retired to Mount Tomi after the Jinshin War, received a vision of the healing Buddha Yakushi and built a bathhouse of medicinal herbs to cure the sick. After Gyoki prayed there on behalf of Emperor Shomu for his ailing daughter, the emperor ordered a great hall built in 734.

In 736 the Indian monk Bodhisena arrived in Japan and, finding the site like Vulture Peak where the Buddha preached, proposed the name Ryosenji. In the Heian period Kukai enshrined the goddess Benzaiten at the inner sanctuary, and the temple came to study both the Hosso and Shingon teachings.

Under the patronage of the Hojo family in the Kamakura period, the main hall was built in 1283 and halls and images were restored. Toyotomi Hideyoshi granted estates, and the Tokugawa shogunate confirmed them, but the temple records that the anti-Buddhist movement of early Meiji halved its compound.

How the Designated Buildings Are Arranged

The temple's map places the National Treasure main hall at the centre, with the pagoda and bell tower nearby. The former guardian shrine, now the Jurokusho Shrine, stands on the rise to the north, its five shrine halls lined up under a protective shelter.

Inside the ground storey of the pagoda are brightly coloured murals attributed to Kose no Kanaoka, themselves an Important Cultural Property, which are not shown to the public. The principal image of the main hall, Yakushi with the attendant bodhisattvas Nikko and Gakko, is kept as a hidden image inside a shrine cabinet.

The grounds also hold a rose garden of about 4,000 square metres opened in 1957. The temple explains that the previous chief priest, who had been held in Siberia after the war, created it as a prayer for peace.

Visiting Ryosenji Temple

According to the temple, the main hall is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and the rose garden from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., every day of the year. Admission is 700 yen for adults and 350 yen for elementary and junior high school students, rising to 1,000 yen and 500 yen in the rose seasons (29 April to the second Sunday of June, and 23 October to the second Sunday of November). Groups of 30 or more receive a discount.

From Tomio Station on the Kintetsu Nara Line, take a Nara Kotsu bus bound for Wakakusadai (route 50) to the Ryosenji stop. By car, it is about 5 minutes south on Prefectural Road 7 from the Hanna Misasagi exit of the Hanna Road, or about 5 minutes north from the Nakamachi ramp of the Second Hanna Toll Road, turning at the Ryosenji-mae junction. There is parking for 120 cars. The address is 3879 Nakamachi, Nara; telephone 0742-45-0081.