Daishō-in

photo by sk01 · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by DimiTalen · CC0

Founded according to tradition in 806 by Kūkai, with the Kannon hall whose eye-opening ceremony was performed in 2006 by the 14th Dalai Lama.

The entrance stairs are lined with mani prayer wheels, to be turned as you climb. At the foot of Misen, the complex takes you in sequence past the Niō-mon gate, the Chokugan-dō hall dedicated to Fudō Myōō, the Mani-den shrine, the Henjō-kutsu artificial cave (which holds sand from the 88 temples of Shikoku) and the Kannon-dō hall, with the statue of Miroku Bosatsu. The temple also looks after the buildings on the summit of Misen – the Misen Hondō, the Sankidō and the Hall of the Eternal Flame (Reikadō, already described on the ‘monte-misen’ page) – where the flame lit according to tradition by Kūkai in 806 still burns, save for the fires that destroyed its building in 2005 and again on 20 May 2026.

The head Shingon temple on Miyajima, at the foot of Mount Misen; it also looks after the buildings on the summit, including the Hall of the Eternal Flame. According to tradition the temple was founded in 806 by Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi), on his return from China, during a meditation retreat on Mount Misen; the first written source, however, dates only from 1177, under the original name of Suishō-ji (水精寺), linked to the Itsukushima shrine: historians believe that at that time it stood on the mainland, not yet on the island. In the same year, 1177, it became a prayer chapel by decree of Emperor Toba, and in 1885 Emperor Meiji stayed there while visiting the Itsukushima shrine. A fire in 1887 destroyed most of the buildings, which were then rebuilt; in 1906 a donation from Itō Hirobumi paid for improvements to the pilgrimage path. In the Kannon-dō hall, an eleven-faced Kannon was replaced, after a restoration, by the statue of Miroku Bosatsu: the eye-opening ceremony was performed by the 14th Dalai Lama on 3 November 2006, for the 1,200th anniversary of the temple's founding.

ℹ️ Open 8:00–17:00 every day, free entry. About 20 minutes' walk from the Miyajima ferry pier, on the road that climbs towards the Mount Misen ropeway.

🚉 水族館 · 20 min walk

Sources: daisho-in.com · daisho-in.com · ja.wikipedia.org

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