Kai Zenkō-ji

photo by さかおり ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by さかおり ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

You clap your hands beneath the painted ceiling and the ‘singing dragon’ answers with an echo.

The Okaidan-meguri ritual takes visitors down into a dark corridor beneath the altar, groping for a key that, according to tradition, binds whoever touches it to the Amida Buddha kept above. In the first three days of the year entry is free to hear the ‘singing dragon’ (鳴き龍), the echo that the painted ceiling of the main hall (金堂) returns to whoever claps beneath it.

Founded in 1558 by Takeda Shingen, who feared the destruction of the true Zenkō-ji of Shinano during the battles of Kawanakajima and had its principal Amida Buddha (bronze, Important Cultural Property) brought here along with other treasures. The statue returned to Nagano in 1597; the present one, a copy, is still the focus of worship. The main hall, rebuilt between 1787 and 1801 in the double-roofed style of Zenkōji temples, measures 38.15 by 23.06 metres and is 26.06 metres high (among the largest wooden buildings in eastern Japan), and together with the gate (山門) it is a national Important Cultural Property.

ℹ️ 9:00–17:00 (admission until 16:30), open all year. Ticket 600 yen adults (includes the hall, the treasure museum and the dark corridor). 10 minutes on foot from JR Zenkōji Station, on the Minobu Line.

🚉 Zenkoji · 11 min walk

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org · yamanashi-kankou.jp · rurubu.jp

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