The Standing Statue of Kūya Shōnin at Rokuharamitsu-ji: Six Amida Buddhas Emerging from His Mouth

A temple founded in 951 to calm an epidemic

In 951 (Tenryaku 5), when an epidemic spread through the capital, Kūya (903–972) is said to have made a statue of the Eleven-Headed Kannon, placed it on a cart, and pulled it through the city, giving the sick tea that had been offered before the Buddha and calming the disease while chanting the nenbutsu. This tea is still given out as "Ōbukucha" (皇服茶) during the first three days of the New Year. In the eighth month of 963 (Ōwa 3), he invited 600 monks to dedicate a copy of the Great Wisdom Sutra (Daihannya-kyō) written in gold, and at night held a great lantern service to celebrate the completion of the halls. The temple was first called Saikō-ji, and Kūya's disciple Chūshin is said to have renamed it Rokuharamitsu-ji.

Kūya is said to have been a son of Emperor Daigo. After traveling through the provinces to practice, he spread the nenbutsu by chanting "Namu Amida Butsu" in the streets, and so he was called "Ichi no Hijiri" (市の聖, the holy man of the marketplace). The temple is the 17th temple of the Saigoku 33 Kannon pilgrimage. The name of Kōyaku-zushi in Shimogyō Ward is also said to be a corrupted form of the name of a hall for memorial services for Kūya.

The statue of Kūya Shōnin: what do the six Amida Buddhas represent?

The standing statue of Kūya Shōnin was made by Kōshō (康勝), the fourth son of Unkei, the leading Buddhist sculptor of the Kamakura period, and it is regarded as the oldest surviving statue of Kūya. It shows him walking as he chants the nenbutsu: a gong (gongu) hangs on his chest, he holds a striker (shumoku) in his right hand, and in his left hand he leans on a staff topped with a deer antler; his knees are bare and he wears straw sandals. His hollow cheeks and thin body are shown realistically.

From his open mouth emerge six small standing Amida Buddhas in a row, supported by wire. They give form to the legend that when Kūya chanted "Namu Amida Butsu," his voice took the shape of Amida.

The deer antler on the staff also has a story. When Kūya was living in seclusion on Mount Kurama, he learned that a hunter named Sadamori had shot and killed a deer he had treated as a dear companion. In his grief, it is said, he made the hide into a robe and fixed the antler to the head of his staff, and never parted with them for the rest of his life. Sadamori is said to have become his disciple and gone around the streets of Kyoto beating a gourd (hisago) and chanting the nenbutsu, and this is said to lead to today's Rokusai Nenbutsu.

In 2022, 1,050 years after Kūya's death, the Tokyo National Museum held the special exhibition "Kūya Shōnin and Rokuharamitsu-ji" (March 1 – May 8), and the statue was shown in Tokyo for the first time in half a century.

Statues of Taira no Kiyomori, Unkei, and Tankei: statues remaining at the temple in Rokuhara

In the late Heian period, after Taira no Tadamori stationed his troops at a subtemple of this temple, the residences of the Taira clan came to line the area in the time of Kiyomori and Shigemori, said to number more than 5,200. When the Taira fled the capital in 1183 (Juei 2), the halls burned in the fires of war, and only the main hall (hondō) is said to have survived. The place name Rokuhara and the story of the Rokuhara Tandai are covered in the entry on the Taira at Rokuhara.

The seated statue said to be Taira no Kiyomori (Important Cultural Property), holding a sutra scroll, is a Kamakura-period statue and is said to show Kiyomori at the time he was copying sutras to pray for his clan's fortune in war. The seated statues of Unkei and his eldest son Tankei are said to have been enshrined beside the principal image of Jūrin-in, the family temple of Unkei's family, and that principal image, the seated Jizō Bosatsu (Yumemi Jizō), is said to be Unkei's work. The standing Jizō Bosatsu said to be by Jōchō is called "Kazurakake Jizō" (鬘掛地蔵) because of its unusual form, holding hair in its left hand.

The hidden principal image, the main hall, and annual events

The principal image, the standing Eleven-Headed Kannon (National Treasure), is thought to be the statue Kūya made when he founded the temple, and it is 258.0 cm tall. It is a hidden Buddha normally kept in a shrine cabinet at the center of the main hall and is unveiled once every 12 years, in the Year of the Dragon. The last unveiling was from November 3 to December 5, 2024 (Reiwa 6), and the next Year of the Dragon is 2036. The main hall (Important Cultural Property) was repaired and rebuilt in 1363 (Jōji 2), and in 1969 (Shōwa 44) it was dismantled and repaired to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the temple's founding; roof tiles thought to date from around the founding and 8,000 small clay pagodas (deitō) were found.

At the Mantōe (萬燈会) from August 8 to 10, the character "大" (dai) is lit with lamp wicks in the main hall, and the ancestral spirits welcomed then are sent off by the Gozan Okuribi on the 16th. Like Rokudō Mairi, held each year from August 7 to 10 at nearby Rokudō Chinkō-ji, it is an Obon event for welcoming the spirits of the dead. The Kūya Yuyaku Nenbutsu (空也踊躍念仏), from December 13 to 31, is handed down by the Rokuharamitsu-ji Kūya Yuyaku Nenbutsu Preservation Society as one of the "Rokusai Nenbutsu of Kyoto," a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. In 1974, 2,163 items, including the clay pagodas and Ōbukucha tea bowls, were designated an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property as "Materials of Popular Faith of Rokuharamitsu-ji."

Where can you see it now? / Getting there

Rokuharamitsu-ji is a 7-minute walk from Kiyomizu-Gojō Station on the Keihan line, or from Kyoto Station take city bus route 206 to "Kiyomizu-michi" and walk 7 minutes (15 minutes on foot from Hankyū Kawaramachi Station). The gate is open from 8:30 to 16:30. The statues of Kūya Shōnin and Taira no Kiyomori can be seen in the Reiwa-kan (Important Cultural Property storehouse). An admission fee is listed only for the Reiwa-kan (as of October 2026).

• Reiwa-kan: 9:00–16:15 (reception until 16:00). From October 1, 2026, 700 yen for adults (600 yen before then), 500 yen for university, high school, and junior high school students, and 400 yen for elementary school students. Groups of 30 or more get 50 yen off each, and people who show a disability certificate pay half price
• Principal image, the Eleven-Headed Kannon: a hidden Buddha. The next unveiling is expected in 2036, a Year of the Dragon
• Parking: 4 spaces