Yakuouin Temple

Yakuoin is a Shingon sect temple located next to Sunomiya Shrine, and its official name is Daimyozan Yakuoin.   According to legend, the temple was founded when a descendant of the deity of Sunomiya Shrine, Ame-no-hirinome-no-mikoto, from the family of the shrine’s chief priest, became a monk, carved a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, and established a hermitage in 1504.

There are three Bato Kannon statues to the left of the stone steps; the central one was erected in September 1839 (Tempo 10), and the one on the far right was erected in 1879 (Meiji 12).

The water basin in the temple grounds was donated by the people of Sumiya village in July 1866, and is inscribed with the names of 19 other donors, including Kawaguchi Seiemon and Watanabe Rokuryuemon.

Of the three graves of monks lined up, the one on the far right belongs to a monk named Ryuchu, the second abbot of Yakuoin.  poem that Ryuchu read. According to the history engraved on it, Ryuchu was a descendant of the Suda clan of Takehara village, and his given name was Eijo.  He entered the Buddhist priesthood at the age of 16, and after training at Chishakuin in Kyoto, he returned to his hometown at the age of 24.  He became a monk at Zenjoji Temple in Takai, and then moved to this temple, where he apparently died of illness. The grave was built in 1894, and is engraved with a Chinese