Legend says that 1200 years ago, while the monk Kobo Daishi was looking for a place to establish the first Buddhist sect in Japan, the Shingon Buddhism, he was helped by two deities of Mount Koya. They guided him towards the mountain plateau where today stands the Garan temple, and as thanks the monk erected this beautiful Shinto shrine called Sanno-in, “the shrine of the mountain gods". The building we see today was rebuilt in 1594.

Sanno-in, Koya-san, Wakayama

EXIF Info:

Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Matsushima Bay Kanejima, the bell island