Yudonosan Churenji Temple is a historic Buddhist temple located at the entrance to the approach to Mount Yudono, one of the Three Sacred Mountains of Dewa. Traditionally believed to have been founded by Kobo Daishi Kukai in 833, the temple belongs to the Chisan School of Shingon Buddhism.
For centuries, Churenji has served as an important center of Mount Yudono worship. During the period when Mount Yudono was closed to women, Churenji became known as a place where women could worship Mount Yudono and played an important role in spreading the faith.
The temple was selected for two stars in the Michelin Green Guide Japan in 2009. Its highlights include a sokushinbutsu, traditional and contemporary ceiling paintings, and a large waniguchi temple gong. The temple grounds are also home to the Shimekake-zakura cherry tree, a more than 200-year-old wild cherry tree designated as a natural monument by Tsuruoka City.
Churenji is also closely associated with the novelist Atsushi Mori and his award-winning novel Gassan (Mount Gassan). Today, the temple offers a unique experience where ancient religious traditions, mountain nature, literature, and contemporary art come together.
The name Churenji is derived from shimenawa, sacred ropes used in Japanese religious traditions. A shimenawa was once placed around the sacred Shimekake-zakura tree on the temple grounds.
In Shinto tradition, a shimenawa marks a sacred boundary separating the divine realm from the ordinary world. Churenji stands at the entrance to the sacred area of Mount Yudono, where a boundary prohibiting women once existed.
The particular way in which the sacred rope was tied was known as shimekake. This gave rise to the name Shimekake, which was also used for the approach to Churenji.
One of Churenji’s most remarkable features is the sokushinbutsu of Tetsumonkai Shonin, which is preserved inside a Buddhist reliquary and displayed to visitors.
A number of sokushinbutsu are preserved in Yamagata Prefecture, particularly in the Shonai region. Of the eight traditionally preserved examples in the prefecture, five are associated with the Churenji tradition and became practitioners of the Mount Yudono ascetic tradition.
Tetsumonkai Shonin, also known as Eigankai Tetsumonkai, was born in Tsuruoka in 1768. At the age of 25, he became a disciple of Kanno, the 69th chief priest of Churenji. He received the name Tetsumonkai, with the character “kai” taken from the name of Kobo Daishi Kukai, and devoted himself to ascetic religious practice.
His activities took him across a wide area of Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to Shikoku in the south. He played an important role in spreading the faith of Mount Yudono and became a source of hope and spiritual support for many people during an era marked by the arrival of foreign ships, earthquakes, and other hardships.
After undertaking approximately 3,000 days of severe ascetic practices, Tetsumonkai is said to have entered sokushinbutsu at the age of 62, the same age traditionally associated with Kobo Daishi when he entered this state.
Sokushinbutsu refers to Buddhist practitioners who underwent extreme ascetic practices in the belief that they could attain a state of spiritual union with the sacred presence of Mount Yudono.
Practitioners known as Yudono ascetics undertook a practice called mokujiki, restricting their diet to wild plants, nuts, and other natural foods while undergoing rigorous religious training. According to the tradition, their aim was to take upon themselves the suffering of others and continue praying for the happiness and salvation of people across the past, present, and future.
Tetsumonkai is particularly revered as a holy figure who devoted himself to spreading the faith of Mount Yudono and praying for the relief of ordinary people suffering from epidemics, famine, and other hardships.
A historic shimekake rope used by religious guides during the latter part of the Edo period is preserved at Churenji. The words “Sanzan Sendatsu” are inscribed on its front, while “Shimekakeguchi” is written on the back.
According to tradition, Kobo Daishi climbed into the mountains and looked across the surrounding peaks. He saw mountains extending in all directions and identified a sacred area resembling the central eight-petaled lotus of a Buddhist mandala.
This place was regarded as the boundary between the sacred and ordinary worlds. Vines and other natural materials were gathered to create a sacred boundary, and a goma fire altar was established within the temple grounds.
Legend also tells of the appearance of the Eight Vajra Guardian Youths, dressed in white robes and wearing white crowns, with shimekake ropes around their necks. They are said to have guided Kobo Daishi toward Mount Yudono.
Religious practitioners and pilgrims visiting Mount Yudono traditionally stopped at Churenji to undergo purification before continuing toward the sacred mountain.
During the Edo period, Churenji was one of the eight traditional entrances to Mount Gassan and was known as Shimekakeguchi. Large numbers of pilgrims passed through the area.
Over time, the elaborate white robes and crowns once worn by pilgrims disappeared from the tradition, while the practice of wearing a shimekake rope around the neck continued.
After completing their pilgrimage, people traditionally placed the rope at the entrance of their homes or on a household altar as a form of protection against evil.
Churenji also offers visitors an unexpected encounter with contemporary art. The ceiling of the main hall features traditional paintings by the late artist Murai Sekisai alongside works by four contemporary artists.
The artworks use the ceiling as a symbolic point of contact between the heavenly and earthly realms, creating an unusual and imaginative spiritual space.
“The Gate to the Sky” is a work by Susumu Kinoshita.
“Sacred and Secular: A Hundred Faces of Flowers” is a work by Toshihiro Kubo.
“A Gathering of White Horses” is a work by Takayoshi Totoki.
“Spirit of Water” is a work by Atsutaka Mitsukubo.
Together, these paintings create an extraordinary space where religious tradition and modern artistic expression can be experienced side by side.
The Shimekake-zakura on the temple grounds is a variety of Kasumi-zakura, or wild cherry tree. According to tradition, Kobo Daishi placed a sacred rope around the tree and practiced beneath it.
The tree is regarded as a sacred tree that Kobo Daishi identified with the sacred presence of Mount Yudono. It blooms with white flowers in early May, which gradually change to a delicate pink color as they mature.
With its changing colors and spiritual associations, the tree has an especially mysterious atmosphere. It was also featured in a fantastical manner in the 1982 film The Legend of Tono.
Churenji is traditionally said to have been founded by Kobo Daishi Kukai in 833. Among the four temples historically associated with the Mount Yudono school, it is considered the most recently established.
The Dewa Sanzan Shrine tradition identifies Prince Hachiko, also known as Nojo Daishi, as the founder of the religious tradition of the Three Sacred Mountains of Dewa. Churenji and Dainichibo, however, traditionally regard Kobo Daishi as the founder of Mount Yudono worship and view Mount Yudono and Mount Koya as sacred sites linked to Kobo Daishi.
During the conflict between Mogami Yoshiaki and the Daiboji clan, also known as the Muto clan, in 1581–1582, the castle of Daiboji Yoshihisa at Oura was surrounded after Maemori forces rebelled. Takamoto Sagae went to Yoshihisa’s aid, but the castle fell before he arrived, and Yoshihisa took his own life.
On that occasion, three scrolls depicting 3,000 Buddhas were reportedly brought back from Churenji and dedicated to the Miroku Hall at Jionji Temple.
Churenji stood at the Shimekakeguchi, one of the traditional approaches to the sacred mountains of Dewa. During the period when Mount Yudono was closed to women, Churenji became an important pilgrimage site known as the “Mount Yudono pilgrimage site for women.”
In the early Edo period, an attempt was made by Tenyu to convert the temple to the Tendai school of Buddhism. The four temples of the Mount Yudono tradition joined together and appealed to the shogunate, successfully preserving their Shingon Buddhist tradition.
In 1867, Churenji even established an outpost in Hakodate, Hokkaido, reflecting the wide reach of its religious influence.
However, the separation of Shinto and Buddhism during the Meiji period brought major changes to Mount Yudono worship. Churenji lost its traditional role as a pilgrimage site and gradually declined.
Churenji later attracted renewed attention through its connection with the novelist Atsushi Mori (1912–1989).
In 1951, Mori stayed at Churenji for almost a year. His experiences there later became the basis for his novel Gassan, which won the 70th Akutagawa Prize in 1974.
The novel subsequently inspired a musical suite and a film, bringing wider attention to Churenji and the mysterious spiritual atmosphere of the Mount Yudono region.
A literary monument to Gassan, bearing Mori’s own calligraphy, was erected on the temple grounds in 1981. A collection known as the Mori Atsushi Library was established in 1986 to preserve and introduce his connection with the temple.
The former library building was eventually demolished because of deterioration. Some of the materials once displayed there were moved in October 2012 to the Taiho-kan Local History Museum in Tsuruoka Park, the former site of Tsurugaoka Castle.
Mori’s experiences at Churenji also appear in several of his other works, including Ware Yuku Mono no Gotoku, published in 1987 and awarded the 40th Noma Literary Prize.
Churenji was selected for two stars in the French edition of the Michelin Green Guide Japan in 2009. Its historical religious traditions, sokushinbutsu, ceiling paintings, and other cultural features contributed to its recognition.
The temple’s artistic highlights include works by Murai Sekisai, including the traditional-style painting “Hiten no Zu,” depicting celestial beings.
In 2009, the Shimekake district in front of Churenji suffered significant damage from a landslide. However, Churenji itself was not affected, and the temple continues to welcome visitors for worship and sightseeing.
The surrounding Shimekake area is also known as a filming location for the Japanese movie Departures, adding another cultural connection to the region.
Churenji is home to a remarkable waniguchi, a traditional Buddhist temple gong suspended at the entrance to a worship hall. The gong was recognized with one star in the Michelin Green Guide Japan and is considered one of the largest of its kind in Japan.
It measures approximately 5 shaku and 5 sun in diameter and weighs around 100 kanme, reflecting the impressive scale of this historic religious artifact.
Yudonosan Churenji Temple offers a rare opportunity to encounter several layers of Japanese culture in one place. Its long history is closely tied to the religious traditions of Mount Yudono and the Three Sacred Mountains of Dewa, while its sokushinbutsu, sacred cherry tree, historic rituals, literature, and contemporary ceiling paintings provide a wide range of experiences for visitors.
For travelers interested in Japan’s spiritual traditions, Churenji provides a particularly distinctive perspective on mountain worship, Buddhist asceticism, pilgrimage culture, and the relationship between the sacred and the natural world.
The combination of an ancient temple surrounded by mountain forests, the mysterious Shimekake-zakura, the story of Tetsumonkai Shonin, and the artistic world created beneath the main hall’s ceiling makes Churenji one of the most intriguing cultural destinations in the Mount Yudono area.