Enryaku-ji Temple, Tendai Buddhist monastery on Mount Hiei, Ōtsu, Japan
Enryaku-ji is a Tendai monastery whose precincts cover Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. Its roughly 150 halls are grouped in Tō-dō, Sai-tō and Yokokawa; the main hall was rebuilt in 1642 under Tokugawa Iemitsu, and the 13th-century Ruri-dō survived Oda Nobunaga's 1571 attack.
Monk Saicho founded the temple in 788 to establish the Tendai school in Japan. Oda Nobunaga ordered the site burned in 1571, leading to a major rebuilding effort completed in 1642.
Enryaku-ji's name comes from the era name of its founding year, 788, though the title was only granted in 823, after Saichō's death. The temple is also called the "mother mountain of Japanese Buddhism" because Hōnen, Shinran, Eisai, Dōgen and Nichiren trained on Mount Hiei before founding their own schools. The Yokawa Chūdō hall is the 18th stop on the New Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage.
Cable cars from Sakamoto town and buses from Kyoto Station bring visitors up the mountain, with each temple section requiring its own entry. The paths connecting the areas can be steep and slippery, so sturdy shoes make walking much easier.
Selected monks practice Kaihogyo here, walking mountain paths daily for 1000 days while combining meditation with extreme physical endurance. This tradition is considered one of the toughest spiritual disciplines in Japanese Buddhism and remains active today.
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