Daitokuji

 This is the back of the main gate. As I came up the stairs I did not realize that I was passing through a gate, I thought that it was a building because the top part of the structure is a covered walkway connecting two of the buildings.

 It was not possible to tell which was the main building but this one was obviously very old and contained an altar. The usual paraphernalia for the standard ritual area here, so I suspect that this might have been the original structure. This is the same ritual that I did at each temple while walking the Henro Pilgrimage. You light a candle and then some incense and then ring a bell (the hanging rope) and deposit a small coin as an offering before chanting a sutra. As you can see there were people around because a number of candles are burning in the case, but I only saw one person. A women came out of this building through a side door and, after staring at me in amazement, crossed to the building just out of sight on the right in the previous picture. Also I noticed that the doors were slightly open.

 After the woman disappeared, I went up to the doors and put my camera in the open space. Inside was a statue. This seems to be a Shingon Sect temple, so it is likely that this is a statue of Kukai, the monk who, after a long trip to China, introduced the sect to Japan.

 I found the grounds to be very appealing. The vegetation was encroaching on the open areas and threatening to hide all the statues.

 At first I did not even notice this pagoda because it was hidden so far back in the trees.

This is again probably Kukai. After his return from China, he traveled around Japan, establishing temples in many places. He also became a government official and contributed much to the growth of Japan.