Miroku Temple Was One of the Shijyuku -in Temple
【Miroku-ji Haiji Temple】
According to “伊水温故 Isui-ungo”, it was also called Tamori（田守）. Located downstream of the Kume River, a tributary of the Kizu River, Gyōki (行基) built Shijyuku -in temples in various regions under the order of Emperor Shōmu (聖武天皇), and one of them was built here in Iga and called “Shijyuku -in Mura (Shijyuku -in village)”.
Iga was the place where modern Buddhism was introduced to Japan, and the Shijyuku-in Temple of Iga were the base of that Buddhism. Shijyuku-in Temple, with Maitreya Bodhisattva as its principal deity, became a school where Yamabushi (山伏, mountain priest) taught military arts, martial arts, and ninjutsu (the art of war) from the middle of the Heian period (794-1185). The first Yamabushi master of military arts was Fujiwara no Chikata.
Miroku-ji Temple was one of the Shijyuku -in Temples, but was closed in 1907 after a fire caused by war during the Tenshō Iga War. However, even today, there are many people who pray to the temple for breast-feeding. The sites of the castle of the Masuda, Nakamori, and Chitaka family still remain.
Miroku-ji Temple was closed in 1872.
