Joruri-ji Temple, Gansenji Temple, many stone Buddha statues, and stone towers line up on the border between Kyoto and Nara, and now it is a tourist destination visited by many people.  When I first visited this place about 50 years ago, I had the impression that it was a really lonely place, there were no shops, and there were a lot of crows.  It is a small temple built at the end of the Heian period. In the deep green precincts, a Jodo style garden centered on the “Takara-ike (a treasure pond)” and a main hall and a three-storied pagoda at the end of the Heian period remain, which conveys the atmosphere of the Heian Dynasty temple.  At the time of the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox, the sun rises from the three-storied pagoda in the east, and the temples are arranged so as to sink into the main hall in the west over around the “Takara-ike”, and so it is reminiscent of the enthusiasm of the Pure Land Buddhism at that time.

京都と奈良の県境、当尾の里には浄瑠璃寺をはじめ、岩船寺や多くの石仏、石塔が立ち並び、今では多くの人達が訪れる観光地になっています。５０年ほど前に初めてこの地を訪れた時は、本当に寂しい所で、店らしい店もなく、やたら烏の多い所だと言う印象しか残っていません。平安時代末期に創建された小ぢんまりしたお寺で、緑深い境内には、「宝池」を中心とした浄土式庭園と平安末期の本堂および三重塔が残り、平安朝寺院の雰囲気を今に伝えています。春秋分の時は、東の三重塔から日が上り、宝池を巡って、西の本堂に沈むように伽藍配置されていて、当時の浄土信仰の篤さを偲ばせます。