Mibu Temple Cultural Properties Exhibition Hall (Mibu Temple History Library)

Highlight

The temple has some 190 Kyogen masks from the Muromachi period through to the present day, and some of these are on display

A temple closely associated with Mibu Kyogen and Shinsen-gumi

The origin of this temple dates back to 991 when the monk Kaiken of Mii-dera Temple enshrined a Jizo-Bosatsu image (Bodhisattva who watches over children, travelers and the underworld) at this site. Later, the temple hall was lost in a fire, but this was restored by Taira-no-Masahira in 1295. And, then, in 1300, whilst attempting to rid the city of a plague using the Jizo form of Buddhism, the monk Egaku Shonin started using mime and gestures to pass Buddhist ideology on to the masses, which increased worship of Jizo-Bosatsu and sowed the seeds for “silent plays”, synomous with Mibu Temple, and now known as Mibu Kyogen.
The temple has a treasure room. Here, visitors can see materials related to Mibu Kygoen as well as a folding screen painting (Important Cultural Property) by Tohaku Hasegawa, a Heian-period sculpture of the 11-faced Kannon Bosatsu, an Edo-period sculpture of Jizo-Bosatsu, and Muromachi-period masks (ancient wood-carved masks used in the Kyogen plays). There are also spaces where temple history, Kyogen and the Shinsen-gumi (the shogunate police connected to Mibu-dera) can be learned about.