Nyoigoe Road

It is the road from Miidera Temple passing through Mt. Nyoigatake and reaching Shishigatani in Kyoto. This road was often used by monks of Miidera Temple as a bypass to go through the mountains from Otsu to Kyoto. You can see in The Tale of Heike and The Taiheiki that armies were seen coming and going on the road and it also turned out to be a battlefield during wars such as the Minamoto-Taira War and the Civil War of the Northern and Southern Courts. During the civil war, the road served as an escape route. In The Hogen Monogatari, it says that retired Emperor Suitoku who was defeated at the Hogen Rebellion [in 1156] went into Mt. Nyoi to flee to Miedera Temple, but the mountain road was too rough to cross the mountain. Miidera Temple was as large-scale as Enryakuji Temple with a strong military force of armed priests between the Kamakura and Muromachi Periods [the late 12th and 16th centuries]. The Nyoigoe Road was, so to speak, developed for armed priests, and after the period of civil wars was over, it regained its peace, and became one of the pilgrimage routes from Kyoto to Miidera Temple. Its name originates from Nyoiji Temple, a branch temple of Miidera Temple, reportedly founded by Chisho Daishi. Its temple buildings are said to have spread in the mountains from Shishigatani in the west to Fujio in the south.