Renkoji Temple

This is a temple of the Pure Land sect with Chion-in Temple as its headquarters. It is famous for the main statue, Amitabha Tathagata, known as “Oiwake Nyorai” and “Komadome Jizo” enshrined in the Jizo hall.
The main statue was reportedly made by Kaikei, a leading sculptor of the Kamakura period. Once, Kaikei created a statue of Amitabha Tathagata at the request of a priest in the eastern Japan. Since the statue looked so gracious, he couldn’t control his wish to worship the statue by himself. He chased after the priest and caught up with him around the Yamashina area outside Kyoto city, where he begged the priest to give back the statue to him. The priest was deeply impressed with the sculptor and opened the box. In it, they found two identical statues instead of one. The sculptor and priest wept with joy and parted east and west each with a statue on their backs. The main statue of this temple is one of the two. The other one, brought back by the priest, is enshrined in the Amidado hall in Sendai City.
According to a legend, Komadome Jizo was made by the high priest Kukai and was once placed at the execution site of Rokujo-gawara (riverside). The statue was buried due to flooding from the Kamo River. One day, when Taira-no-Kiyomori came on a horse to the area, his horse came to a halt. They dug in the ground and found this statue of Jizo, the name of which derives from this story.
The grounds house the grave of Chosokabe Morichika, a military commander who played key roles in the Battle of Sekigahara (1600) and the Siege of Osaka (1614-1615).

Kyoto City