Ryūkaku-ji Temple, Buddhist temple in Sakae, Japan

Ryūkaku-ji is a Tendai Buddhist temple on a plateau near Lake Inba in Sakae, Chiba Prefecture. Its low single-storey wooden hall has dark brown walls and a grey tiled roof with a raised gabled entrance; a white signboard with a green border stands to the right. Excavations have revealed the foundations of a pagoda, a Kondō and a South Gate, with Nara-period roof tiles.

The temple was founded in 709, during the reign of Empress Genmei, making it one of the oldest religious sites in eastern Japan. In 1933, it was designated a National Historic Site, which brought formal attention to what the ground itself still shows: layers of construction from multiple centuries.

Ryūkaku-ji belongs to the Tendai school of Buddhism, and the grounds show signs of continuous religious use: offerings, maintained altars, and stone markers placed across the site. The name itself, meaning 'Dragon Horns Temple', reflects an old legend tied to this specific place.

The grounds are open to walk through freely, though some sections have uneven terrain where ancient remains are visible underfoot. Visiting on a weekday tends to be quieter, which makes it easier to move around the older sections of the site at your own pace.

The 731 drought legend ends with the small dragon of Lake Inba split into three parts: its head was buried at Ryūkaku-ji, its torso at Ryūfuku-ji in Inzai, and its lower body at Ryūbi-ji in Sōsa. The three temples, not three zones of one grounds, carry the dragon's name.