Database: Enryaku-ji Temple
During the Heian period a considerable monastic complex developed northeast of the capital Kyoto on Mount Hiei (848m). The conglomeration was formed around the Enryaku-ji, the main seat of the Tendai school. Enryaku-ji was established by the founder of the Japanese Tendai school, the monk Saichô, upon his return from China in 805. The temple enjoyed imperial favor and was granted the title "protector monastery of the State" because relative to the Imperial Palace it was in the direction of the "demon gate," and was supposed to protect the court and the capital from evil influence. The Enryaku-ji was further linked to the court because most of the abbots of the monastery were sons of high dignitaries and many young aristocrats were sent there to learn to read and write by reading and copying Buddhist sutras.
During the medieval period, the Enryaku-ji was commonly referred to as "the Mountain," and was the head of numerous domains. The temple was defended by a formidable army of warrior monks who were religious but of lower status and more versed in arms than studies. When the court or the shogunate made a decision against their interests temple monks descended into the city and organized demonstrations of force supervised by their warrior monks. In the 12th century, the retired emperor Shirakawa liked to say that the only things over which he had no influence were "the flows of the Kamo, the dice of backgammon, and the monks of the Mountain." Some historians have said that medieval Enryaku-ji constituted a state within a state.
No one really controlled Kyoto without the consent of these monks. As a result, in 1571 Oda Nobunaga attacked this armed power in a merciless war. During the conflict, the religious buildings were reduced to ash and several thousand inhabitants, both men and women were massacred, The surviving monks were dispersed and the temple's domains confiscated. The latter was rebuilt under Hideyoshi and then under the Tokugawa, but by then it had lost its former military and economic power.