Kurama-dera Temple

According to the temple's history, in 770 the monk Gantei, a disciple of the Chinese monk Ganjin, climbed here following a dream and a white horse. On the mountain a demon woman attacked him, the god Bishamonten saved him, and he built a temple to the god. In the Heian period nobles and women writers came up here: Sei Shonagon wrote about the winding path to the temple in 'The Pillow Book', and according to the temple, Murasaki Shikibu described it in 'The Tale of Genji'.

Minamoto no Yoshitsune, who as a child was called Ushiwakamaru, was sent to the temple at about age 7 and left it at 16. According to legend, by day he studied Buddhism here and by night the tengu, the mountain demons, taught him to fight in the Sojogadani valley. Since 1949 Kurama-dera has been the head temple of an independent school, Kurama Kokyo.

On the way up you pass Yuki Shrine, moved here in 940, where the Kurama Fire Festival is held every year on 22 October: villagers carry torches through the streets from 18:00 until after midnight. Above the main hall the path continues along the 'root path', a stretch where the cedar roots crawl over the ground because the rock is too hard for them to penetrate, and goes down to the west gate and Kibune.