Shōgo-in

About

Shōgo-in (聖護院) is a Buddhist temple in the Shogoin-Nakamachi neighborhood of Sakyō-ku in the city of Kyoto, Japan. Its honzon is an image of Fudō Myōō. It is also called the Shōgoin-monzeki (聖護院門跡), and is the central temple of the Honzan school of Shugendō in Japan, and is the head temple that governs the "Kasumi" (regional organizations that control Shugendō practitioners) throughout the country. It boasted high status. Of the 37 head priests up until the Meiji period, 25 were from the imperial family and 12 were from the regent family. In the late Edo period, it was used as a temporary imperial palace twice, and in due to this connection, its precincts were designated a National Historic Site in 1937.