Risshaku-ji Temple is one of four-temple circuit which Jikaku Daishi Ennin (794 – 864) who completed the doctrine of Tendai sect established and Basho Matsuo who was a famous haiku poet in the Edo period visited. Jikaku Daishi Ennin established Risshaku-ji Temple in 860 with an Imperial sanction by Emperor Seiwa.
The mountain Risshaku-ji Temple is located consists of tuff breccia. Tuff breccia became strangely-shaped rocks by wind and water erosion over the years. When you visit Risshaku-ji Temple, you can see those strangely-shaped rocks through the trees. The appearance is changed in each season and beautiful.
You can also see some slabs with a haiku cut on them, board monuments and temple buildings along the stone staircases in the temple precinct surrounded by mossy rocks, old Japanese cedar trees and strangely-shaped rocks. The temple precinct is profound silence same as about 1,200 years ago.
In 1689, the Edo period, Basho Matsuo, a famous haiku poet, and his pupil, Sora Kawai visited Risshaku-ji Temple and wrote one of famous haiku poems in the travelogue, the Narrow Road to the Deep North,
Haiku Poem : Shizukasa-ya Iwa-ni Shimiiru Semi-no-koe
English : Deep silence, the shrill of cicadas, seeps into rocks.
I recommend you to visit Risshaku-ji Temple especially in summer.
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