Jigen-do (Important Cultural Property)

Jigen-do was built in 1643 by order of shogun Iemitsu to honor the monk Tenkai, who died that year at age 108. Tenkai spent his life restoring Mount Hiei after it was destroyed in 1571 and served as advisor to three successive Tokugawa shoguns. Inside the hall is a wooden seated image of Tenkai in his posthumous title of Jigen Daishi. Surrounding the hall are memorial stupas honoring an extraordinary range of figures: Emperor Kanmu, the deified Tokugawa Ieyasu, Murasaki Shikibu who wrote the Tale of Genji, the poetess Izumi Shikibu, and Sei Shonagon, alongside post-Edo Tendai abbots.