Kiyotaki-ji Temple

On the slope of Mt. Io above the town of Tosa stands this temple of the Shingon Buzan sect. Its mountain name is Iozan, its sub-temple name is Kyochi-in, and its principal image is Yakushi Nyorai. It is Temple No. 35 of the Shikoku 88-Temple Pilgrimage, and local people have long called it Takaoka no Odaishi-san, the Kobo Daishi of Takaoka.

According to temple tradition, it was founded in 723 when the monk Gyoki built a hall and enshrined a statue of Yakushi Nyorai that he had carved himself. Later Kukai (Kobo Daishi) visited and trained for 17 days on a rock about 300 m north of the temple. On the last day, he struck the ground with his vajra staff, clear water welled up and formed a pond like a mirror, and the temple was renamed and became Temple No. 35. In 861, Prince Takaoka, the third son of Emperor Heizei and a disciple of Kukai, visited and is said to have built a gyakushu-to, a memorial tower for his own afterlife, which still stands in the grounds. The prince later set out for India and vanished, and the mountain is closed to visitors in his memory.

The highlights are the dragon painting on the ceiling of the Niomon gate and the huge standing Yakushi Nyorai in front of the main hall. The statue, about 15 m tall, was erected in 1933 with donations from paper manufacturers, and passing through its interior is said to ward off misfortune. The dragon ceiling painting of the Niomon gate was done in 1900 by Kubo Nanso. The grounds hold the main hall, the Daishi-do and a bell tower. The temple is also revered for safe-childbirth prayers and women's health.

In the past, pilgrims climbed the Hacchozaka stone steps, with a Jizo statue at every cho (about 109 m), to reach the gate. A section of the Tosa pilgrim road is a National Historic Site, and walking it lets you see traces of the old route. Today you can drive up close to the main hall, but the road is a narrow, steep lane barely wide enough for one car, so inexperienced drivers should be careful. The sacred spring and shrine of the Okunoin above the temple are closed because storm damage made the path unsafe, but visitors can still draw the water.

A clear day is the best time to go. Allow roughly 30 minutes to an hour to walk around the grounds. The temple is about 15 minutes by taxi from Ino Station on the JR Dosan Line, or about 2.5 km from Tosa IC by car. Only standard cars may park, and about 20 can enter the grounds. The neighboring temples on the pilgrimage are No. 34, Tanema-ji (about 12 km), and No. 36, Shoryu-ji (about 18 km). Nearby you will find Omura Shrine, the Ino Paper Museum and the Niyodo River, so the temple pairs well with a trip themed on papermaking and clear-stream scenery.