Kasagidera Temple

Kasagidera Temple crowns the 288-meter peak of Mt. Kasagi south of the Kizu River, surrounded by giant boulders that were considered sacred long before any buildings were erected here. The temple's principal object of worship is a 16-meter Maitreya carved directly into a boulder face, one of several Magaibutsu rock carvings attributed to the monk Roben and his disciple Jitchu around 1,300 years ago. In 1331 the entire mountain was burned when Emperor Go-Daigo made it his refuge during a failed attempt to overthrow the shogunate. The temple fell into ruin by the Edo period and was fully deserted by 1868, before a priest named Joei began restoring it in 1876. The reliquary holds over 20 Important Cultural Properties, including an Eleven-Headed Kannon.