Daikaku-ji Temple

This guide to Daikaku-ji Temple in Kyoto opens with Emperor Saga's private villa in the early 800s, and the plague that led his teacher, the monk Kobo Daishi, to have him hand-copy the Heart Sutra rather than simply pray. It follows what happened to that sutra, now sealed inside the octagonal hall and shown to the public only once every sixty years, last in 2018. Pause by the octagonal hall before walking out toward Osawa Pond.