Cultural Assets－Sutra Mounds

Sutra mound #20. According to the late 18th century Yamato Meisho Zu-e illustrated guide, Ishi-dera (“Stone Temple”) was one of the seven great temples of Mount Kongo and it was used as a Shugendo training site. The temple was named for a stone statue of Yakushi Nyorai (the Medicine Buddha), which was believed to have been carried by En no Gyoja from Baekje (a Korean kingdom). The temple complex no longer exists. Climb a little up the trail from the old temple site, and you’ll find a three-meter high granite rock believed to be a sutra mound. Dotting the area are mini stone pagodas and the graves of Shugendo practitioners, reminding visitors that the area was once a temple compound. If you walk down the trail about 30 minutes, you’ll reach the ancient site of another temple called Takamiya. This is a nationally designated historic site. Here you’ll find stone foundations believed to date from the Nara Period (8th century).