Blog

Samukawa Tatsukiyo was a Confucian and Japanese classic scholar. He was born in 1697 in Aburanokoji-...

Akechi Mitsuhide was a general in the Azuchi-Momoyama Period. His children include Gracia, the wife ...

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a general in the Azuchi-Momoyama Period. He is known for becoming a warlord a...

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the first sei-i taishogun, the commander-in-chief, of the Edo Shogunate, and is ...

Matsuo Basho was a haiku poet in the early Edo Period and is widely known as the greatest master of ...

Saint Rennyo was a monk and the restorer of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (Jodo Shin Sect) in the Muroma...

Oda Nobunaga was a general in the Azuchi-Momoyama Period. He is known as the hero who ended the chao...

Kobo Daishi Kukai was a high-ranking priest and the founder of the Shingon Sect in the early Heian P...

Minamoto no Yoshinaka was a general at the end of the Heian Period. His father Minamoto no Yoshitaka...

Murasaki Shikibu was a novelist and poet in the mid-Heian Period. She is widely known as the author ...

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the first sei-i taishogun, the commander-in-chief, of the Kamakura Shogunat...

Yodo-dono, whose real name was Chacha, was a concubine of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. She was born as a daug...

Emperor Tenji was the 38th emperor in Japan. He is known as the most eminent emperor of all. He was ...

Ashikaga Takauji was the first sei-i taishogun, the commander-in-chief, of the Muromachi Shogunate. ...

Ernest Francisco Fenollosa was an American historian of Japanese art. After graduating Harvard Unive...

Priest Roben was a scholar monk in the Nara Period and one of the four saints who founded the Todaij...

Shunnyu Naigu was a Shingon Sect Monk, and a grandson of Sugawara no Michizane. He received religiou...

En no Gyoja was a mountain ascetic in the late 7th century, and is revered as the founder of Shugend...

Chisho Daishi Enchin was a high-ranking priest of the Tendai Sect in the early Heian Period. He was ...

Musashibo Benkei was a monk in the early Kamakura Period. He appears in Noh and Kabuki plays and is ...

Keiso Ajari was a monk in the mid-Heian Period [of the latter 10th century]. He led prosperity to On...

Fujiwara no Tabiko was born as a daughter of Fujiwara no Momokawa, a government official in the Nara...

At the crossroad 100-meters eastwards from the Nakamura Kaikan Hall in Nakamura, Mano, a Jizo stone ...

Nakamura Shigekichi was a resident of Katata and wrote Katata Monogatari (the story of Katata) in 16...

During the war between the Minamoto Clan and the Taira Clan, there was a woman called Otose. She was...

Once, there was a great scholar and monk called Annen. Although he mastered his study in Hieizan, hi...

In the precinct of Dairenji Temple, famous water, Nurinuki Water used to gush out. Its name reported...

Saint Rennyo who established the foundation for the development of the Jodo Shin Sect, had a narrow ...

Once upon a time, there was a prostitute named Tagabana in the Shibayamachi brothel district in Otsu...

According to the legend, once upon a time, Chikubu Islands in the north of the lake were formed by t...

In June 2, 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide killed his lord, Oda Nobunaga, at Honnoji Temple in Kyoto. Soon af...

In 815, while Kobo Daishi Kukai was going on a pilgrimage all over the country, from around Oishi he...

One day, while Fujiwara no Hidesato was crossing the Seta no Karahashi Bridge, a gigantic snake abou...

It was reportedly the foundation stone of Horanomiya Palace built in the Nara Period [in the 8th cen...

In 859, Chisho Daishi Enchin went to Mt. Tanakami to seek good material to build Miidera Temple. He ...

On the night of the full moon in August in 1691, the day of the harvest moon, a moon-viewing haiku p...

There is a masterpiece yokyoku called “Miidera” created by Zeami. [Yokyoku is the vocal section of t...

In the mid-Heian Period [around the 10th or 11th centuries], there was a monk called Kogi who was a ...

The Kannondo Hall, the 14th stop on Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, was originally called Shoboji Temp...

On the opposite side of the Kondo, the main hall, there is an old cedar tree called Tengu-sugi with ...

The bell tower stands on the right side at the top of the stone steps leading to the Kannodo Hall, t...

This is the principal image, Maitreya, enshrined in the Kondo of Miidera Temple. This statue of the ...

Prince Otomo, later Emperor Kobun, died tragically when the capital of Otsu was abolished. He died a...

Near the Kondo, there is the “miraculous spring water of Mii” that was used for the first baths for ...

It is said that the dragon god of Lake Biwa gave a bell to Tawara no Tota Hidesato to express his gr...

Juhachi Myojin is the deity who protects Miidera Temple and is also familiarly known as “Nezumi no M...

This is a group of sutra scrolls passed down by the heads of the temple from generation to generatio...

In 808, when Kobo Daishi finished ascetic practices in the Tang Dynasty China, his master Huiguo gav...

During the Heian period [between the 9th and 12th centuries], visits to Ishiyama were popular among ...

Yoshihira, the first son of Minamoto no Yositomo, was famous for his bravery at his young age and wa...

Murasaki Shikibu lost her mother in her early years and was brought up by her father Fujiwara no Tam...

Ishiyamadera Temple is lively with many visitors as the 13th stop on the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimag...