Medicine Buddha (Yakushi Nyorai)

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Anraku-ji

Kamiita, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Anraku-ji is Temple 6 of the Shikoku 88, in Kamiita, Tokushima. Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing, presides here, and Anraku-ji is the only fudasho with its own onsen....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Awa Kokubun-ji

Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Awa Kokubun-ji is the official kokubunji—provincial Buddhist temple—of Awa Province, founded by imperial edict of Emperor Shōmu in 741 to pray for the welfare of the...

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Byōdō-ji

Anan, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Byōdō-ji, Temple 22 of the Shikoku 88, takes its name from Kūkai's vow that all illness be healed equally....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Daikō-ji

Mitoyo, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Daikō-ji, also known as Komatsuoji, sits in farmland on a low hill in Mitoyo, Kagawa....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Dōryū-ji

Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Temple 77 Dōryū-ji in Tadotsu is known on the Shikoku route as the Eye-Healing Yakushi (me-naoshi Yakushi)....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Enkōji

Sukumo, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Enkō-ji is the thirty-ninth and final temple of the Tosa (Kōchi) section of the Shikoku 88, set in Sukumo....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Fujii-dera

Yoshinogawa, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Fujii-dera sits at the foot of a steep mountain ridge in Yoshinogawa, the threshold temple before the most demanding stretch of the Shikoku 88....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Hanta-ji

Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Temple 50 of the Shikoku henro stands on a wooded hillside above southern Matsuyama, its Yakushi Nyorai principal image attributed by tradition to the wandering monk Gyōki....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Ido-ji

Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Ido-ji, Temple 17 of the Shikoku 88, is named for a well Kūkai is said to have dug in a single night to bring clean water to a suffering village....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Ishite-ji

Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Temple 51 of the Shikoku henro is the legendary birthplace of the entire pilgrimage tradition....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Iyo Kokubun-ji

Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Iyo Kokubun-ji is the 59th fudasho on the Shikoku 88 and one of the original kokubunji established in 741 by Emperor Shōmu's edict to protect the realm....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Jōruri-ji

Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Jōruri-ji is the forty-sixth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and the first of eight in the Matsuyama cluster....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Kanjizai-ji

Ainan, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Kanjizai-ji is the fortieth stop on the Shikoku 88 — the first temple of the Ehime (Iyo) section, marking the pilgrim's transition from Tosa's discipline of asceticism...

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Kiyotaki-ji

Tosa, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Kiyotaki-ji is the thirty-fifth stop on the Shikoku 88, set on a hillside in Tosa City above terraced citrus groves at 137 meters....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Kongōchō-ji

Muroto, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Kongōchō-ji crowns a wooded promontory on the western side of Cape Muroto, the second of the Muroto Sanzan triad....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Konzō-ji

Zentsūji, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Temple 76 Konzō-ji is the birthplace of Chishō Daishi Enchin (814–891), founder of the Tendai Jimon school and fifth abbot of Enryaku-ji on Mt Hiei....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Kōyama-ji

Zentsūji, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Temple 74 Kōyama-ji stands at the foot of Mt Kōyama in Zentsūji City, where Kūkai is said to have prayed for the success of the Mannoike reservoir repair in 821 — a...

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Ōkubo-ji

Sanuki, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Ōkubo-ji is the eighty-eighth and final temple of the Shikoku circuit, set in a deep valley at 450 metres between Mt. Yahazu and Mt. Nyotai near the Tokushima border....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Onzan-ji

Komatsushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Onzan-ji, Temple 18 of the Shikoku 88, is the 'Temple of Gratitude.' It stands at the place where Kūkai's mother, Tamayori Gozen, became one of the first women admitted to...

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Sekkei-ji

Kōchi, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Sekkei-ji is the thirty-third stop on the Shikoku 88, founded by Kūkai in the early ninth century and later converted to Rinzai Zen as the bodaiji of the Chōsokabe warlord...

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Tanema-ji

Haruno, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

The thirty-fourth temple of the Shikoku 88 sits among rice paddies in Haruno, Kōchi....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Yakuō-ji

Minami, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Yakuō-ji, Temple 23 of the Shikoku 88, is the canonical yakuyoke-no-tera — the misfortune-warding temple — of the pilgrimage....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Zentsū-ji

Zentsūji, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Temple 75 Zentsū-ji stands on the ground where Kūkai was born in 774. Founded by him in 807 on his return from Tang China, it is the head temple of the Zentsuji-ha school...

Sacred focus

Korean Buddhism

Samhwasa Temple

Donghae-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

Samhwasa is small enough to be missed by people pressing deeper into Mureung Valley, yet its sacred field is unusually broad....