Yasui Kompiragū Shrine

This guide to Yasui Kompiragu Shrine in Kyoto opens with a monk named Daien, shaken awake by a dream of a furious dead emperor. It traces that fury to Sutoku, exiled to Shikoku after losing the Hogen Rebellion in 1156 and dying there unforgiven, and to the successor who ordered a shrine built on the hillside he once loved to contain his spirit. You'll hear how the shrine's centerpiece, a stone slab with a hole through its middle, ended up holding a second, stranger purpose centuries later. Stand close and look at what covers its surface before anyone explains it to you.