Kōmyō-ji Temple

This guide to Komyo-ji Temple in Kyoto opens on a battlefield in 1184, where the samurai Kumagai Naozane kills a young nobleman, Taira no Atsumori, during the war between the Taira and Minamoto clans. It follows Naozane's remorse, his conversion under the monk Honen, founder of Pure Land Buddhism, and the small hall of prayer he built here in 1198 under his new name, Rensei. You'll also hear what happened to Honen's grave fifteen years after his death in 1212, when rival monks tried to disturb it. Walk the corridor of maples planted long after that night, tracing the path grief took across centuries.