Engyo-ji spreads across a mountaintop northwest of Himeji Castle, a training temple of the Tendai sect founded by the priest Shoku-shonin. Its main hall, the Maniden, stands where he is said to have watched a heavenly maiden dance and recite a verse around a cherry tree. The Three Halls enclose a wide courtyard in a U shape, and the walk between the buildings is part of what there is to see. For anyone who has already seen the castle, the mountain offers a different kind of day in the same city.
The Maniden and the Cherry Tree
The story of the Maniden begins with a tree. The founding priest Shoku-shonin is said to have seen a heavenly maiden dancing and reciting a verse around a cherry tree where the hall now stands, and he answered the vision by carving an image of Nyoirin Kannon into the tree itself. The hall that visitors climb to today occupies the ground where that cherry tree grew.
That attachment to the ground has outlasted the building itself: the Maniden has been rebuilt four times, and each rebuilding returned to the place where the cherry tree stood. A later retired emperor who visited the temple asked to see the statue, and on viewing the Nyoirin Kannon image he gave the hall the name Maniden.
The approach to the hall is lined with the thirty-three Saigoku Kannon statues, so visitors see the full set of figures on the walk up before reaching the Maniden itself, and there is reason to linger over them rather than treat the approach as a stretch to get through.
The Three Halls and the Wide Mountain Precinct
The Three Halls form a U shape around a wide courtyard, and the yard between them is the shared space of the temple that Shoku-shonin founded for Tendai training. The U shape leaves a wide yard at the heart of the group, and that courtyard is as much a part of the visit as the three buildings around it.
The history of the lecture hall goes back to the year of Retired Emperor Kazan's visit. In the year of that visit the temple received the name Engyo-ji at the priest's request, became the retired emperor's own prayer temple, and the lecture hall was built. That year marks the point in its history where a mountain training ground became a temple with the court behind it.
The historic-site precinct is a narrow strip running east to west, with buildings scattered along the mountain's valleys, so moving between them is a walk in its own right on a mountaintop northwest of Himeji Castle. Visitors who expect a single compound find instead a temple spread out over the hilltop, and wandering between its scattered halls is a large part of its character.
A Retired Emperor, a Poem and the Pines
Retired Emperor Kazan came to Mount Shosha twice, and his visits run through the temple's history. He had already entered the priesthood when he made the journey to meet Shoku-shonin, the holy priest, and the visits bound a mountain temple founded for training to the court.
On the second visit he took small pines from the mountain back to the capital and had them planted for himself, for the crown prince and for the emperor. A waka poem attributed to him speaks of the mountain wind at Shosha and the sound of its pines.
The pilgrim's song of Engyo-ji, its Goeika, runs "Harubaru-to nobore-ba shosha-no Yamaoroshi, matsu-no hibiki-mo minori-naruran", and an English rendering reads "The pines whispered as they swayed in the breeze". The line gives visitors a phrase to carry up the mountain and a reason to listen for the wind in the pines.
Rites Through the Year
In January comes the Shuseie, the ritual known as oni-oi. For this service the Maniden is shut completely and the ritual proceeds by the light of candles and torches, with a paper flower called the oni no hana set at the center of the outer sanctuary.
The oni of the name is the god who calls spring, and at Engyo-ji that means the guardian youths Otoden and Wakaten, who perform a dance prayer at the worship hall of Hakusan Gongen. The Shuseie is said to have begun soon after the death of the founding priest, when Otoden and Wakaten were enshrined as the mountain's tutelary deities.
A fire ritual follows later in January at the Maniden and the fire-ritual hall, and February brings the Setsubun service with its star festival, along with a memorial service for Retired Emperor Kazan at the lecture hall. In May the Maniden holds the Buddha's birthday flower festival over two days, and a special viewing of the founder's statue takes place twice a year, in March and on the service day in April.
Prostrations for the Thousand Buddhas
In December the lecture hall is given over to the three-thousand-buddhas prostration practice, a ritual spread across three days. Participants chant the names of the three thousand buddhas of past, present and future while performing five-point prostrations, a form of worship in which the thousand buddhas of the past, the present and the future are taken on successive days.
Anyone may join the ritual, and nobody is held to the full schedule: participants come up the mountain and leave again at whatever time suits them. Those who would rather not prostrate may remain seated and simply chant the buddha names together with the others, which makes this a rite a traveler can join rather than watch from the side.
One meal on the mountain needs planning: the shojin meal at the sub-temple Juryoin is served to groups of five to twenty people, and a single visitor is not accepted, so solo travelers should not plan the day around it.
Getting to Mount Shosha
| From | To | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Himeji Station (JR and Sanyo Dentetsu), by bus | Shosha Ropeway, mountain base | about 30 minutes |
| Ropeway mountain-base station | Ropeway mountain-top station | about 4 minutes |
| Ropeway mountain-top station, on foot | Maniden, along the approach of Saigoku Thirty-three Kannon statues | about 1 km, 15 to 20 minutes |
| Ropeway mountain-top station, by microbus | Below the Maniden | departs at 15, 38 and 55 minutes past each hour |
| Donation office, by microbus | Below the Maniden and back | special donation of 500 yen for the round trip |
| Car park beside the foot station | Ropeway | free for ropeway users, private cars and sightseeing buses |
From Himeji Station the bus to the ropeway takes about thirty minutes, the ride up about four, and the walk from the top to the Maniden fifteen to twenty. If you would rather have someone else plan the connections, you can browse guided tours in and around Himeji.
New to rural buses and one-man trains? See how to ride them, step by step.
Hours and Fees
| What | Fare or time | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Shosha Ropeway, one way, adult | 700 yen | regular ticket |
| Shosha Ropeway, one way, child | 350 yen | regular ticket |
| Shosha Ropeway, round trip, adult | 1,200 yen | regular ticket |
| Shosha Ropeway, round trip, child | 600 yen | regular ticket |
| Engyo-ji entry donation | 800 yen | middle-school age and older |
| Engyo-ji entry donation, children | 500 yen for elementary school pupils; preschool children free | |
| Shosha Ropeway | closed for major renovation, February 5 to October 28, 2027 | check before a trip in that period |
| Shuseie (oni-oi) | January 18, 13:00 | Maniden and Hakusan Gongen worship hall |
| Setsubun service and star festival | February, 13:00 | Maniden and the fire-ritual hall |
| Buddha's birthday flower festival | May 7 and 8, all day | Maniden |
| Three-thousand-buddhas prostration | December 14, 15 and 16, 9:30 | lecture hall |
| Himeji Castle admission | 2,500 yen | aged 18 and over |
For a day that takes in both the castle and the mountain, guided tours of Himeji are one option.
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