Ryōzen-ji

Ryōzen-ji is the threshold where most walking pilgrims begin the Shikoku 88. At the outfitter outside the gate, travelers buy a white hakui jacket, conical sugegasa hat, wooden kongō-zue staff, stole, prayer beads, osamefuda slips, and the nōkyōchō stamp book that will accompany them around Shikoku. Putting on the robe outside the Niōmon is a small, deliberate transformation; afterward the journey is no longer touristic, but something harder to name.

Tradition says Kūkai, founder of Shingon Buddhism and posthumously Kōbō Daishi, retreated here in 815 and saw Shakyamuni Buddha preaching on Vulture Peak in India. He carved Shaka Nyorai and named Ryōzen-ji the Sacred Peak Temple, from which the canonical sequence of 88 fudasho radiates. Historians hold that the network crystallized later, in the late medieval and Edo periods, but pilgrims still experience this as the beginning.

The compact grounds contain a guardian-flanked Niōmon, pond, nearby Hondō and Daishi-dō whose chanting carries between them, and a stamp office whose staff have inscribed the first calligraphic page of millions of books. Mount Ōasa rises north, a pre-Buddhist mountain associated with Ame-no-hiwashi-no-mikoto; Vulture Peak layers new sacred meaning upon it rather than replacing it. Many henro look back at the road from the gate and quietly mark their beginning.

Ryōzen-ji is a thin place not because anything dramatic happens in the precinct, but because of what happens to the people passing through it. Within Shingon's reading of the four prefectures of Shikoku as four stages of practice — Tokushima as the dōjō of awakening (hosshin), Kōchi as discipline (shugyō), Ehime as enlightenment (bodai), Kagawa as nirvāṇa (nehan) — Ryōzen-ji opens the first stage. The temple is where aspiration becomes commitment.

The mountain name Jikuwasan and the temple name Ryōzen-ji together evoke Vulture Peak, the site in India where Shakyamuni delivered the Lotus Sutra. Kūkai's recorded vision and his subsequent carving of the Shaka Nyorai image transferred that geography to Shikoku. Beneath this layering lies the older devotion to Mount Ōasa, where the Shintō kami Ame-no-hiwashi-no-mikoto has been venerated since antiquity. The temple's name does not erase the older mountain religion; it sits inside it.

Ryōzen-ji's earliest tradition places its founding in the 8th century by the priest Gyōki, who built temples across Japan at the order of Emperor Shōmu. Its refounding by Kūkai in 815 reframed the site as the explicit starting point of his proposed 88-temple circuit and as a Buddhist counterpart to the indigenous Mount Ōasa cult.

The medieval temple was destroyed during the 16th-century invasion of Shikoku by the warlord Chōsokabe Motochika, then rebuilt during the Edo period. As mass henro pilgrimage spread in the Edo era, Ryōzen-ji acquired its present role as outfitter and orientation point: the place where new pilgrims learn the ritual sequence they will repeat 87 more times. Today it is a parish temple of the Kōyasan Shingon school and the most heavily trafficked of the early temples on the route.

Most pilgrims arrive in the morning, having taken the local train to JR Bandō and walked the kilometer and a half. The pilgrim outfitter shop, Monzen-ichibangai, sits opposite the gate. New henro often spend an unhurried hour there: trying on the white hakui, choosing a sugegasa, weighing the kongō-zue staff that doubles as a walking stick and a stand-in for Kōbō Daishi himself, leafing through stamp books. Inside the gate the protocol begins.

At the chōzuya, water is taken in the right hand, then the left, then to the mouth and back. At the bonshō — the great bell — one slow ring marks arrival; departing pilgrims do not ring it again.

At the Hondō, a candle is lit from the temple's flame, never from another pilgrim's, then placed on the upper rows of the rōsokutate; three sticks of incense go into the kōro, one osamefuda slip is dropped into the box, a coin is dropped into the saisen, and the chanting begins — Heart Sutra, the Shaka Nyorai mantra, and the Mantra of Light. The same sequence repeats at the Daishi-dō.

Then the stamp office: three vertical lines of black ink and three red seals, the first inscription in a book that will fill over the coming weeks. The sound is muffled — wood, footsteps, the soft scratch of a brush, the occasional bell — and most pilgrims stand longer than they expected to.

Arrive at JR Bandō Station on the Kōtoku Line and walk about 1.5 kilometers north to the temple. From the parking lot, bow once at the Niōmon before passing under it. Visit the Monzen-ichibangai shop opposite the gate first if you intend to outfit yourself as a henro. Inside the precinct, do the chōzuya purification before approaching the halls. Hondō first, Daishi-dō second, stamp office last.

Plan thirty to sixty minutes for a thorough first visit, longer if you are buying full pilgrim gear.

Tradition holds that during a retreat at this site in 815, Kūkai had a vision of Shakyamuni Buddha preaching the Lotus Sutra on Vulture Peak (Gridhrakuta) in India. He carved an image of Shaka Nyorai, named the temple Ryōzen-ji ('Sacred Peak Temple'), and inaugurated it as the first of the 88 fudasho on his proposed circumambulation of Shikoku. Earlier tradition attributes the temple's original founding to Gyōki at the order of Emperor Shōmu in the 8th century.

Whether Kūkai personally consecrated this exact site is undocumented outside Shingon tradition.

Ryōzen-ji is officially affiliated with the Kōyasan Shingon-shū, the largest branch of Japanese esoteric Buddhism, headquartered at Mount Kōya in Wakayama. Its position as fudasho-ichiban (Temple 1) of the Shikoku 88 places it at the symbolic and practical entrance to the Kūkai-centered henro tradition that has been continuously practiced — with periods of greater and lesser activity — for over a thousand years.

Historic henro practice prescribed a specific sequence at every fudasho. Approaching the gate, the pilgrim bows once. Water is taken at the chōzuya: right hand, left hand, mouth, then the ladle handle is rinsed. At the bonshō a single slow stroke is rung on arrival — not on departure, which is said to bring bad luck.

At the Hondō a candle is lit from the temple's permanent flame and placed on the upper rows of the candle stand; three incense sticks are placed in the kōro; an osamefuda slip bearing the pilgrim's name and prayer intention is dropped in the slip box; coins are offered in the saisen-bako.

The Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyō) is chanted, followed by the honzon mantra — at Ryōzen-ji this is the Shaka Nyorai mantra ('Nōmaku samanda bodanan baku') — and the Mantra of Light (Kōmyō Shingon: 'On abokyabeiroshanō makabodara mani handoma jinbara harabaritaya un'). The full sequence is repeated at the Daishi-dō with the Kōbō Daishi mantra ('Namu Daishi henjō kongō') in place of the honzon mantra. Finally the nōkyōchō is presented at the stamp office for the first inscription.

Daily monastic services continue under the Kōyasan Shingon liturgy. The stamp office issues the first inscription for new henro and provides orientation for those uncertain of the sequence. The on-grounds and adjacent shops sell every standard item of pilgrim equipment, from osamefuda packs to white robes in graded ranks for those who have completed multiple circuits.

If this is your first temple, allow time. Do the chōzuya. Ring the bell once. Even if you do not intend to chant, stand at the Hondō for a full minute before moving on; the rhythm of the route depends on this kind of patience. If you are not Buddhist, ringing the bell once on arrival and offering a coin and a moment of attention is enough.

If you do choose to chant, ask the staff at the stamp office for a small Shikoku-88 sutra booklet — they are accustomed to first-day pilgrims.

Different communities tell the story of Ryōzen-ji differently. The historian, the Shingon priest, the folk-religious villager, and the secular henro all converge at the same gate but for different reasons.

Films, episodes, and recorded talks for visitors who want more context before or after a visit. Speculative and alternative-history entries are labelled as perspectives, not as sources for established claims.

Continue through the atlas by country, tradition, physical form, or a focused search that combines this place’s strongest context.

Explore other sacred places in the region. Proximity does not establish access or travel time; check each place’s guidance.

Gokuraku-ji

Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

1.2 km away

Konsen-ji

Itano, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

3.4 km away

Dainichi-ji

Itano, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

6.7 km away

Jizō-ji

Itano, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

7.0 km away

Sources consulted for this page. Source categories describe the publication, not a guarantee that every claim is verified. Traditional accounts and outside interpretations may differ.

1. 01Ryozenji – Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku — Henro.orgguideStandard reference for Shikoku 88 temple histories
2. 02Jikuwazan Ichijyouin Ryozenji – Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage — Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage AssociationofficialOfficial temple association page
3. 03Ryozenji Temple - Naruto Travel — Japan GuideguideMainstream English-language Japan travel resource
4. 04Customs and Etiquette of the Shikoku Pilgrimage — Henro.orgofficialDetailed pilgrim etiquette
5. 05Ryozenji Temple, the First Temple of the Shikoku Pilgrimage — Chugoku Shikoku Tokyo (JNTO)guideJNTO-affiliated tourism site
6. 06Monzen-ichibangai Henro Shop — Henro.orgguidePilgrim outfitter directly outside Temple 1