Adashino Nenbutu-ji Temple

Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple is a Jodo Buddhist temple in Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, with the mountain name Kasai-zan. Adashino has been known since ancient times as a place for open-air burials, and along with Toribeno in Higashiyama and Rendaino in northern Kyoto, it has been a cemetery area since the Heian period. According to temple tradition, it was founded in Konin 2 (811), when Kobo Daishi Kukai buried exposed remains, interred 1,000 stone Buddhas, erected stone images of the Five Wisdom Buddhas, and established Gochizan Nyorai-ji Temple—considered the origin of Adashino Nenbutsu-ji. Access to Adashino Nenbutsu-ji is about a 25-minute walk from Saga-Arashiyama Station on the JR Sagano Line. The main hall was rebuilt in Shotoku 2 (1712) during the Edo period and enshrines an Amida Nyorai statue as the principal image. The approximately 8,000 stone Buddhas and stone pagodas in the precincts were gathered around 1903 (Meiji 36) by excavating and collecting abandoned, ownerless memorials scattered in the area, and they were named "Sai no Kawara" in reference to the riverbank of the underworld. Every year on the last Saturday and Sunday of August, a lantern-lighting memorial service called "Sento Kuyo" is held. In conjunction with this event, "Atago Kodo Kaido Tomoshi" is also carried out along the Saga-Toriimoto road, where old-town streetscapes remain.