Mizu-no-Mori Water Botanical Garden

Enryaku-ji Temple

Enryaku-ji Temple, located on Mount Hiei in Otsu, overlooks all of Kyoto from its serene mountaintop. The temple was founded in 788 in the early Heian period by Saicho, who brought the Tendai sect of Buddhism from China to Japan. He is one of the most important monasteries in Japanese history. At its peak, the Enryaku-ji Temple had up to 3,000 sub-temples and a powerful army of martial monks, who often got involved in power struggles with other monasteries and political leaders. Oda Nobunaga attacked, demolished and killed most of Enryakui's buildings in 1571 in order to eliminate all potential rivals and unite the country. Hence, most of today's temple buildings date from the early Edo period when the Enryaku-ji Temple was rebuilt.