Horai-ji Temple stands on sacred Mt. Horaiji (695 m) in Shinshiro City, a Shingon temple said to have been opened by the ascetic Rishu in 703 CE. Its 1,425-step stone stairway serves as a path of spiritual practice for pilgrims. During the Edo period the temple received generous patronage from the Tokugawa shogunate, with successive shoguns dispatching proxy worshippers on their behalf. The mounta…

Horaiji Temple is said to have been founded in 703 CE by the ascetic hermit Rishu, who established a sacred site on Mount Horaiji (695 m) and enshrined Yakushi Nyorai as the principal deity. During the Heian period, the mountain gained wide renown as a center of Shugendo mountain worship, attracting…