Otaginenbutsuji Temple

Otagi Nenbutsuji descends from a temple founded in 766 by Empress Shotoku in what was then Otagi district, on the Higashiyama side of the city. Its main hall dates from the mid-Kamakura period and is an Important Cultural Property; the whole temple was moved out here to the far end of Sagano in the Taisho era. The principal image is a thousand-armed Kannon of protection, and the Jizo hall enshrines a fire-preventing Jizo known for its fire-safety talismans. What stays with you, though, are the 1,200 stone rakan filling the grounds — every one carved by an ordinary visitor, so no two faces are alike, and the effect is oddly disarming. It makes a good place to start a walk through Sagano.