Gango-ji (Gokurakubo)

This guide to Gango-ji's Gokurakubo in Nara tells the story of Dojo, a boy said to be as strong as thunder who beat a member of the royal family in a wrestling match before he was even a teenager and was sent here to train as a temple attendant. It sets up the mystery waiting for him: the boys who tended the bell tower kept turning up dead by morning, and the monks were sure a demon was to blame, so Dojo volunteered to keep watch himself. The temple's oldest surviving roof tiles, darker and uneven above the Gokurakubo, came all the way from Asuka before Nara was even the capital.