Mount Hiei (比叡山, Hiei-zan?) is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga prefectures, Japan.
The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tientai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by Saichō in 788. Both Nichiren and Hōnen studied at the temple before leaving to start their own practices. The temple complex was razed by Oda Nobunaga in 1571 to quell the rising power of the Tendai's warrior monks (sōhei), but it was rebuilt and remains the Tendai headquarters to this day.
The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Hiei was named after this mountain, having initially being built as a battlecruiser.
Read more about Mount Hiei: Mount Hiei in Folklore, Marathon Monks, Attractions, Access
Famous quotes containing the word mount:
“On the 31st of August, 1846, I left Concord in Massachusetts for Bangor and the backwoods of Maine,... I proposed to make excursions to Mount Ktaadn, the second highest mountain in New England, about thirty miles distant, and to some of the lakes of the Penobscot, either alone or with such company as I might pick up there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)