ZENKO-JI TEMPLE
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Several million visitors come to worship the famous early Buddhist statues. A single pilgrimage to Zenkō-ji is said to ensure their salvation. To do so, one must grope inside a tunnel below the main altar to touch "the keys to paradise". This temple is dedicated to the deities Amida Nyorai (the representation of the deity who comes to fetch men before taking them to the realm of the pure earth after death), Seishi and Kannon, three sacred figures whose gilded bronze statues are said to have been given in the 7th century by the king of Paektche (in Korea) to the Japanese emperor Kimmei (510-571). The temple was built in the 6th century to house the statues. But following a struggle, both political and religious between two rival clans, the statues were thrown into a canal in the Ōsaka River. Zenkō (reading Honda Yoshimitsu in Chinese), after recovering the statues, is said to have then brought them back to his native village where he had an oratory built in 602. According to some legends, the temple proper was founded in 670 and Zenkō, his wife and son were buried in the temple. According to other sources, there is no record of the temple being built before the 9th century, and the very name Honda Yoshimitsu lends itself to several questions. A visit to Zenkō-ji will be even more memorable if you attend the morning service (at 5:30 am) during which pilgrims pray and get blessed. You can also choose to sleep in a temple accommodation(shukubo) to participate in this daily morning service (Oasaji). A visit to the temple is an absolute must if you are in Nagano.
The first gate
is called Niomon and was rebuilt in 1918. It includes two Nio which date from the same period. This pair of Buddhist deities Kombo and Mishaku, placed on each side of the main gate, represents, by the open mouth of one and the closed mouth of the other, the forces in charge of chasing away evil spirits.To the north of the Niomon,
the Sanmon Gate, built at the end of the 18th century, and finally, to the west of this gate, the Daikanjin (main temple of the Tendai sect) in which the Treasury Hall offers to see documents, paintings and sculptures, including the Zenkō-ji Engi which tell and illustrate the history of the temple. Finally the Hondō, the largest wooden building in Japan after the famous Tōdai-ji in Nara, was built in 1707 in a rather unusual way, as the entrance is below the gable
Situé a quelques kilométres de la gare et facilement accessible a pied on deambule dans ce grand ensemble de temple dont certaine partie sont payantes.