Jizo Temple

Jizo Temple is a Koyasan Shingon sect Buddhist temple located 2 minutes by foot from the Nankai train line Koyashita station in Kudoyama-cho, Wakayama Prefecture. It serves as a betto-ji (a temple attached to a shrine) for Shiideitsukushima Shrine.
While it is unknown when this temple was built, considering that the temple owns the 288th volume of the "Dai-hannya-kyo Sutra" which was transcribed in 1107 and received a memorial service from the priest Keishin, it should have been built before that year.
The main highlight of the temple is a picture of "Jizo Shoryu", which fills a 3.6 square meter space on the cieling of the priest's living and cooking room. The dynamic drawing shows a golden dragon flying in the sky, with Jizo-Bosatsu (the temple's main buddhist deity) on its head.
The closest station, Koyashita station, was formerly called Koyasan station, and was the starting point for pilgrimages to Koyasan, a sacred place for Japanese Buddhism. It is well know that from a long time ago many people visited Koyasan, making this temple very busy. How about a stroll in Kudoyama-cho, a town full of the places like Jizo temple and Shiideitsukushima shrine, that carry the power of esoteric Buddhism?
(Photo: Kudoyama-cho Wakayama)