Gokuraku-ji Temple

This temple belongs to the Jodo School, which is headed by the Chion-in Temple. Its “mountain name” is Tenshozan, and it houses a triad of Amida images as its principal object of worship.
According to the picture scroll, and temple treasure, “History of the Jizo of Safe Birth at Gokuraku-ji, Kyogoku-Gojo, Kyoto,” Gokuraku-ji Temple was founded in Shijobomon-Higashinotoin by the high priest Ichirenja around the Eiroku period (1560-1570). That area is still known as Ichirensha-cho. The temple was relocated to this site in the Tensho period (1573-1592).
The aforementioned picture scroll depicts a Jizo bodhisattva statue that is considered the genuine work of Kobo Daishi, and which was enshrined beside the road in Ibana (believed to be what is now part of Sakai City), but the high priest Kakurenja II relocated the Jizo to this temple when he came to Kyoto, out of a wish to have it help Kyoto residents and assist them with safe birth. With Tango-no-Tsubone having given birth to a son (who would later be known as Shimazu Saburo Tadahisa) through its spiritual power, it became known as the Jizo of Safe Birth. In addition, it is also known as the Arrow-Taking Jizo, because in the battle between Wada Masatake, Lord of Izumi, and Shimazu Tadakuni, Lord of Satsuma, all arrows loosed by Wada were caught by the Jizo’s base, protecting Shimazu; and as the Guiding Jizo, as it changed itself into the form of a priest to guide home children lost at the Gojo-Kyogoku crossroads.
The temple graveyard contains the grave of Kikuoka Kengyo, a late Edo period jiuta (local song) koto performer.