21 Tairyu-ji

Tairyu-ji sits deep in the mountain forest above the city of Anan and serves as the 21st temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, the celebrated 1,200-kilometre circuit of 88 Buddhist temples that winds around the island of Shikoku. It belongs to the Kōyasan branch of Shingon Buddhism and is nicknamed the "Kōya of the West" — a reference to the tradition's great mountain monastery on the Kii Peninsula. The temple's founding is traced to 793, with legend attributing its establishment to the monk Kūkai, who reportedly spent long periods of meditative austerity in these mountains. A ropeway makes the steep ascent accessible to non-pilgrims, though white-clad henro pilgrims still climb the forest path on foot as tradition demands. The compound of wooden halls, incense smoke, and layered mountain silence offers a vivid encounter with living Japanese monastic culture.