The founding of Kurama-dera traces back to 772, when a disciple of the Chinese monk Jianzhen received a vision that Mount Kurama possessed concentrated spiritual power. He climbed the mountain and built an esoteric temple to harness and channel that energy. The origins are historically murky -- multiple traditions claim different founders -- but the temple's connection to Jianzhen, the legendary Tang dynasty monk who braved shipwrecks and blindness to bring Buddhist precepts to Japan, gave it deep roots in the transmission of continental Buddhism. From the beginning, Kurama-dera existed at the boundary between orthodox religion and mountain mysticism, a place where institutional Buddhism met older, wilder beliefs about the spiritual power dwelling in Japan's forested peaks.

Through the medieval era, Kurama-dera burned down repeatedly. Fires claimed its wooden halls again and again, but each time, the temple's Buddhist statues and sacred objects were carried to safety. Those rescued treasures are today classified as National Treasures of Japan, their survival across centuries of destruction adding to their mystique. The temple's religious identity proved equally volatile. It shifted between three different Buddhist sects over the centuries, including a long affiliation with the Tendai school under the authority of Shoren-in from the 12th century onward. The sectarian wandering reflected a deeper tension: Kurama-dera's mountain location and esoteric practices never fit comfortably within any single orthodox Buddhist tradition.

The temple's most distinctive feature is its object of worship. Under the old Tendai order, the primary deities were Bishamonten, the guardian of the north, and the Thousand-Armed Kannon, bodhisattva of compassion. But the current leadership added a third figure to create a unique trinity they call the Sonten, or "Spiritual Kings of the World." Bishamonten represents the Sun, Kannon represents Love, and the third statue -- the Defender Lord -- represents Power. According to temple teaching, the Defender Lord came to Earth from Venus 6.5 million years ago and remains eternally sixteen years old. Some New Age writers identify this figure with Sanat Kumara, a being from Theosophical tradition. The actual statues are hidden from public view, but visitors can see replicas in the main hall. The Defender Lord's replica depicts a figure with a long beard, a prominent nose, wings, and a halo made of leaves -- an image strongly reminiscent of the tengu that local tradition says inhabit the mountain's forests.

In 1949, abbot Kouun Shigaraki made a radical decision: he severed Kurama-dera's ties with Tendai Buddhism entirely and founded his own religious body. The split freed the temple to fully embrace its eclectic mountain-worship heritage. The yamabushi -- mountain ascetics who had long been among the temple's most devoted patrons -- could now be openly welcomed without the constraints of sectarian orthodoxy. Today, Kurama-dera occupies a unique religious space, neither fully Buddhist nor Shinto nor anything else with an easy label. Mount Kurama is also claimed as the birthplace of reiki, the energy-healing practice that spread worldwide in the 20th century. The Shinto shrine Yuki-jinja, founded on the temple grounds in the year 940, adds yet another layer to the mountain's spiritual complexity. Lonely Planet lists the temple as a Kyoto Highlight, and Japanese visitors flock here drawn by the accumulated mysteries: the tengu sightings, the Venusian deity, the National Treasures pulled from burning halls, and the raw atmosphere of a mountain that has been considered sacred for well over a thousand years.