Gansen-ji

photo by z tanuki · CC BY 3.0

The Amida has the date carved inside: 946, 2.4 m tall and cut from a single trunk.

The road ends in the forest and the temple is there. In the main hall sits an Amida (the buddha of the Pure Land) two metres forty tall, made from a single torreya trunk, with the year 946 carved inside. Outside, on the lawn, a fifteenth-century three-storey pagoda with four demon figures holding up the corners of the roof. In June the grounds are full of hydrangeas.

A hillside temple in the Tōno district, at one end of the sekibutsu trail – the Buddhist stone figures carved along the road – that leads to Jōruri-ji. The seated Amida statue and the three-storey pagoda from the Muromachi period are both Important Cultural Properties.

ℹ️ Adults ¥500. In winter, from December to February, it closes at 16:00 with last admission at 15:45; from March to November it opens at 8:30 and closes at 17:00, admission until 16:45. Open all year. ⚠️ The temple states that it has no car park of its own: you use the paid ones around it. From JR Kamo it is about sixteen minutes by municipal bus, with few services: check the return timetable before you get on. From the Nara side the bus drops you twenty-five minutes’ walk from the temple.

🚉 浄瑠璃寺 · 21 min walk

Sources: gansenji.or.jp

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