Kajū-ji

Kajū-ji (勧修寺, Kajū-ji^?), also sometimes spelled "Kwajū-ji" or "Kanshu-ji, is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Yamashina-ku, Kyoto, Japan.

A temple has existed on this site from as early as 900 AD. Kajū-ji, known familiarly as "Kikki-san," was founded by Emperor Daigo. This site is said to have been chosen because the mother of the emperor had lived a significant part of her life in this place; and after her death, the temple was established in her memory.

The temple was destroyed in 1470 during the Onin War and then later restored by the Tokugawa family and the Imperial Household. Successive head priests have been drawn directly from the Imperial family. Mito Mitsukuni (popularly known as Mito Komon) is said to have donated the stone lantern in front of the Shoin.

Japanese Buddhist priests of aristocratic or imperial lineage were more particularly identified as monzeki (門跡, monzeki^?). The term was also applied to the temples and monastic communities in which they were joined; and Kajū-ji was a monzeki temple. Beginning in 942, imperial princes lived as monks at Kajū-ji.

The eldest son of head of the Fushimi-no-miya branches of the imperial family was adopted at age two in 1818 by former-Emperor Kōkaku. Akira-shinnō entered the priesthood under the title Siahn Hoshinnō and later became prince-abbot of Kajū-ji.

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