Ryushoji, the 64th temple on the 108 temple Shingon Pilgrimage around Kyushu, is located just off the main road that crosses over the Shimabara Peninsula just south of Unzen Mountain.
The temple is high enough up the lower slopes of the mountain to have great views down and over the Ariake Sea to Kumamoto.
The temple is visible from some distance because of the huge, brightly colored statues of Fudo Myo standing more than 13 meters tall.
At its base are another couple of brightly-painted Fudo statues.
When I first visited in 2014 the newly built main hall was still behind scaffolding and blue tarps, but it opened in 2015. I revisited a few years later while walking the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage.
The temple suffered no damage during the eruptions of the 1990's, though it did receive a lot of ash and the road which heads on up to Unzen Hot Springs was closed for a while.
The honzon is a Dainichi Nyorai, but I can find no other information or dates for the temple.
The previous post in this series chronicling day 62 of my walk along the pilgrimage was on the buried houses of the Unzen disaster.
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