Miidera

photo by 663highland · CC BY 2.5

photo by Daderot · CC0

Burned 23 times in the Sengoku period, 14 of them by the monks of Enryaku-ji: it is called the ‘phoenix temple’.

One of the four great imperial temples of Japan together with Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji and Enryaku-ji, Onjō-ji (known as Miidera) bears the marks of twenty-three fires suffered during the Sengoku period, fourteen of them set by the warrior monks of the neighbouring, and rival, Enryaku-ji. Each time it was rebuilt, hence the nickname ‘phoenix temple’ (不死鳥の寺). Its bell, recast in 1602, is one of the three great bells of Japan and is included among the country's hundred soundscapes; it is also one of the Eight Views of Ōmi, ‘the evening bell of Mii’.

Large temple of the Tendai-jimon school in Ōtsu, with a history of destruction and rebuilding that goes back to the 7th century. The Kondō and other buildings are National Treasures.

ℹ️ Miidera Station on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto line, 10 minutes on foot. Opening hours and tickets not checked precisely: the official site (shiga-miidera.or.jp) could not be reached because of an SSL certificate error.

🚉 Miidera · 13 min walk

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org

All series · Open the map