Myojoin Temple

Myojoin on Fukue Island is said to have been named by the monk Kukai in 806 after returning from study in China. He prayed here for his knowledge to benefit Japan, and a bright star appeared the following morning. A bronze statue of Yakushi, the Buddha of medicine, may date to the eighth century when Japanese envoys stopped at the Goto Islands during crossings to Tang China. From the fourteenth century, the Goto lords supported the temple. In the seventeenth century, a Kano school artist painted 121 images of plants and birds across the main hall ceiling, with celestial figures in the four corners.