Chionji Temple

Chionji, known familiarly as the Kireto Monju Hall, has an Important Cultural Property Monju Bosatsu as its principal image and is counted among the three great Monju temples of Japan, alongside those at Kameoka in Dewa and Sakurai in Yamato. The Japanese saying that three heads together make the wisdom of Monju is very much the point here: the grounds are packed solid with votive tablets praying for success in study and in entrance examinations. Its holdings include a multi-treasure pagoda from the Ashikaga period, an Important Cultural Property gong, and the poem-mound of the poet Izumi Shikibu.