This use to be a massive Temple complex on top of Mt. Hiei (Hiei-zan). It was established in 767 by Saicho who introduced Tendai sect from Mahayana Buddhism to Japan from mainland China. It is significant in the history of Kyoto and even all Japan. It is the head Tendai sect temple and is a UNESCO site. This temple grew in size by temples (up to 3,000 sub temples) and monks. It had a large group of "warrior monks" and it was a strong force in Japan and in the government. Feeling threatened by this warrior monk class, Oda Nobunaga in 1571 ordered his forces to march up the mountain that over looked the ancient capital and slaughtered the monks and burned the temple to the ground. The current buildings were erected in the 1600-1700 century after a change in the government. Now temple complex today is in three areas the Sai-to, To-do and Yokawa.
My travels to the mountain (by cable car and rope way) was cut short because I was unprepared for how cold it got that day so I only visited one the the areas.
I love the mountains and temples so this was great day trip form Kyoto.
Here is the bell tower or Shoro.
There was a small temple along an mountain path that I took.
I huddled under a front entrance way because it started to rain cats and dogs and I had short sleeves on. It had dropped to 45 degrees F.
These lanterns were huge, was a nice quite walk through the mountain.
The maples and moss compliment each other a lot and just drove my joy higher.
I don't know what they are called but they have so much color when they wrap this bib thing around some statues. There was also a opened bottle of water left there for the fox statue.
Thanks for stopping by!
Info came from Wikipedia!
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