At the foot of Mt. Katsuragi, which straddles Osaka and Nara, in Kanan Town, Osaka Prefecture, surrounded by idyllic countryside, there is Hirokawadera Temple, known as the place of the death of Saigyo.  Hirokawadera is a Shingon Buddhist temple founded in 665 by En-no-Gyoja.  It is famous as a famous place for cherry blossoms, and in the spring it is crowded with cherry blossom viewing and cherry blossom festivals.  There is Sakurayama behind Hirokawadera, and you can enjoy about 1500 cherry blossoms such as wild cherry blossoms, Yoshino cherry blossoms, double cherry blossoms, weeping cherry blossoms, and haze cherry blossoms while hiking the promenade. In the latter half of the Heian period, Saigyo, who excels in both literary and military arts as a samurai on the Northern Bushi (samurai warrior), abandoned the elite course and left home to become a priest. He roamed Japan and wrote many waka poems, but the place of his demise was unknown.  While Jiun, a song priest in the middle of the Edo period, longed for Saigyo and traveled around the countries, he found that there was a Saigyo mound at Hirokawadera in Kawachi Province, and this was decided as the end of Saigyo.

大阪と奈良にまたがる葛城山の麓、のどかな田園にかこまれた大阪府河南町に、西行終焉の寺として知られる弘川寺があります。弘川寺は665年に役行者によって創建された真言宗の寺院です。桜の名所として名高く、春にはお花見や桜祭りでにぎわいます。弘川寺の裏手には桜山があり、遊歩道をハイキングしながら山桜やソメイヨシノ、八重桜、枝垂れ桜、霞桜など約1500本の桜を楽しむこともできます。 平安時代後期、北面の武士として文武両道に秀でた西行はエリートコースを捨て、23歳の若さで出家します。 日本を放浪し、多くの和歌を詠みましたが、終焉の地は不明でした。江戸時代中期の歌僧である似雲が西行を慕って諸国をめぐうち、河内の国の弘川寺に西行塚があるのを見つけ、ここが西行終焉の地と定まったわけです。