The official name of Buddhist temples consists of two parts; “Something San or Zan” and “Something Ji”. San or Zan means mountain, while Ji means temple. Many temples used to be built on the mountains and that seems to be why this San (Zan) part came to be part of the official name. Later every temple was named in this naming system.
In case of this temple, the official name is Shosha-zan Engyo-ji. The temple came to be well-known among ordinary Japanese and some non-Japanese after its halls and precincts were used for the location site of the film, The Last Samurai, featuring Tom Cruise.
The film crew happened to come here. It was not a planned trip. They came after they saw majestic Himeji-jo (Himeji Castle) as planned and they just had some time left. So the officials of the city of Himeji, as tour escorts, just kindly took them to the temple for sightseeing. They fell in love with the site and later part of the film was shot here taking five days.
Tom Cruise stayed in Kobe, from which he commuted to the mountain by helicopter.
The whole temple is awesome. The origin of the temple is far back in the 10th century. It’s a temple and monastery on top of the hill, 371 meters above sea level. Visitors cannot drive up to the mountain; instead they take an aerial cable; in 3 minutes and 50 seconds, you are at the mountain terminal.
There’s a bus service from the terminal to a breathtaking hall called Mani-den to save you from walking. You should walk, however. To enter the precincts, the temple asks 500 as contribution. If you need to take a bus, you are asked to pay 1000.
I’m in the middle of something and there’s not much time to write a lot about this temple now, but I simply wanted to upload the photos to share with you; and especially with a young Australian couple I met at a Okonomiyaki restaurant in Miyajima, Hiroshima Prefecture. I told them they should visit Engyo-ji and am hoping they managed or will go.
So only lots of pictures this time. I’ll add the writing later.
The first picture is Mani-den, often featured in guide books.