Cultural Assets－Sutra Mounds

Sutra mound #8 is found on the summit of Tomyogadake, a 558-meter-high mountain to the south of Shipporyu-ji Temple. Looking west from the mountaintop, you get an expansive view of Osaka Bay. On a stone altar you’ll see a stone mini shrine and an itabi (stone tablet memorial). The itabi is engraved with the year 1459, making this one of the oldest monuments of the 28 sutra mounds. Along the mountain trail leading to Tomyogadake are two Shugendo training sites called Jabara (“snake’s underbelly”) and Uragyoba (“rear training site”). The entrance to Uragyoba is marked with a torii gate and a sacred rope, giving the area a solemn air fit for a Shugendo mountain site.