Temple 72, Mandara-ji

Mandara-ji is temple No. 72 on the Shikoku pilgrimage, or Henro. It stands on a slope under the shadow of strangely shaped Mt. Gahaishi. The former inner sanctuary of the temple can be seen on the shoulder of the mountain.

What to see

A Niō guardian gate stands at the entrance to the temple. The Niō guardians themselves have a striking bug-eyed appearance. A short walled passage leads to a bridge over a rectangular pond. The main hall is directly ahead with the Daishi Hall to the left and the temple office to the right. There’s also a Kannon Hall, Goma Hall, Jizō Hall, Aizen Hall, and Hachiman Shrine.

Kūkai was said to have planted a pine tree on the grounds which lived until 2002 when it had to be cut down due to disease. The trunk was carved into a seated image of Kūkai. Named the Kasamatsu Kōbō Daishi, you can see it in the precincts.

A poet-monk of the late Heian period, Saigyō (1118-1190), who lived in a hermitage nearby used to take naps on a stone that now stands in the temple. It’s carved with a poem recalling a friend who left his hat hanging on a cherry tree.

The hat is here—
but what has become of the person who wore it?
Ah, how fleeting…beneath this falling rain.

There are still cherry trees in the precincts which blossom in early spring.

History

According to tradition, the temple was founded in 596, making it the oldest on the pilgrimage. It was the ancestral temple of the Saeki clan, the clan to which Kūkai belonged, and was originally called Yosaka-ji Temple.

After Kūkai’s return from Tang China, he enshrined the Two Worlds Mandala he had brought back, re-established the temple with Dainichi Nyorai as the principal image, and designated it as the family temple for his mother, renaming it Mandala-ji. By the Kamakura period, it had prospered to the extent that Emperor Go-Horikawa granted it temple lands.

However, it was destroyed by fire during the military campaign led by Miyoshi Jikkyū of Awa in 1560. It suffered further damage from warfare during the early 1600s but was subsequently rebuilt.