Hokke-do (Important Cultural Property)

The Hokke-do on Mt. Hiei is one of four meditation halls in the Western Pagoda district of Enryakuji Temple, and the only one of its type to survive in this precinct. It is dedicated to the half-walking, half-sitting samadhi, a 21-day practice in which monks alternate walking prostrations around the hall with seated meditation. The central image is the bodhisattva Fugen, associated with meditative practice. Temple founder Saicho intended to build a hall for each of the four samadhi types, and completed only this one during his lifetime. Practitioners still use the hall today, maintaining a meditation tradition that is more than 1,200 years old.