Shishigatani

A Settlement at the Western Foot of Nyoigatake

鹿ケ谷 is read Shishigatani (ししがたに). It is tempting to read the first character, 鹿 (deer), as shika, but in this place name it is read shishi. When it is written 鹿ヶ谷, the reading is still ししがたに.

Shishigatani was a settlement in the hills at the western foot of Nyoigatake, bordered by Jōdo-ji to the north and by Nanzen-ji and Awataguchi to the south. Over the mountains to the east lay Ōmi (today's Shiga Prefecture), and the old road leading to Onjō-ji (Mii-dera) was also called the Nyoi-goe, the route between the two provinces.

Shishigatani Lies at the Western Foot of Nyoigatake

The Legend of a Guiding Deer

The place name is said to come from a legend that when Chishō Daishi (Enchin) visited this area, a single deer appeared and showed him the way. It is only a legend, and details such as when it happened are not told.

From the Heian period onward, aristocrats built temples and mountain villas here, and the area around Enjō-ji, a temple abandoned after the Ōnin War, was also famous for its cherry blossoms. It was known as a hillside area of great natural beauty.

Shunkan's Villa and the Shishigatani Plot

The name Shishigatani became famous because Shunkan, an administrator of Hosshō-ji temple, built a mountain villa in the hills east of Reikan-ji and held meetings there to plot the overthrow of the Taira (Heike) clan. Betrayed by an informer, Shunkan and the other ringleaders were arrested and exiled to distant islands, and the villa was confiscated. Since then this part of the hills has been known as Dangōdani, "the valley of the conspiracy."

This event of 1177 is called the Shishigatani plot (鹿ヶ谷の陰謀), a conspiracy by close associates of the Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa to overthrow the Taira. Although it was stopped in advance thanks to an informer, it opened a deep rift between Taira no Kiyomori and Go-Shirakawa, and two years later, in the coup of 1179 (Jishō 3), Kiyomori confined the cloistered emperor to the Toba-dono palace.

Shishigatani Village in the Edo Period

Nyoi-ji (Nyoirin-ji), said to have been one of the "three thousand temple lodgings" of Mt. Hiei, was founded in the Shishigatani area, and many of its halls were scattered across the hills, but it was destroyed by fire during the wars of the Nanbokuchō period. Its rebuilding in the mid-Edo period by the imperial abbess of Reikan-ji is depicted in Shūi Miyako Meisho Zue, a guide to Kyoto's famous sites published in 1787 (Tenmei 7).

In the Edo period, Shishigatani Village was a farming village with an assessed yield of a little over 158 koku of rice, held by lords such as the princely abbots of Myōhō-in and Shōren-in. Because the village bordered the mountains, disputes over the use of the hills never ended, and it also came into conflict with Jōdo-ji Village and with Onjō-ji in Ōmi. The village is said to have had a few rural samurai, called gōzamurai, under each lord, who were allowed to use surnames and to wear swords when on official duty or at shrine rituals.

Where Can You See It Today? The 18 Shishigatani Town Names

As of April 1, 2025 (Reiwa 7), Sakyō Ward has 18 town names beginning with Shishigatani, all of them in the school districts of Daisan Kinrin Elementary School and Okazaki Junior High School. The official spelling uses a full-size ケ (鹿ケ谷), though in historical writing it is sometimes written with a small ヶ (鹿ヶ谷). Both are read Shishigatani.

Among the town names, five end in -dani (谷, valley)—Kurikidani, Sakuradani, Shōbudani, Daikokudani, and Tokuzendani—and others end in -san or -yama (山, mountain): Zenkisan, Tachōsan, Fudōyama, and Nyakuōjiyama. The present town names suggest that this was land opened up in valleys at the foot of the mountains. Today Shishigatani is fully urbanized, lined with houses and schools, but the town names keep alive the image of earlier times.

If you walk here, try collecting the town names that follow "Shishigatani" on address plates and town-name signs; the names of valleys, temples, and shrines give you clues to the shape of the land. Dangōdani, where Shunkan's villa is said to have been, lies in the hills east of Reikan-ji.