Tō-ji ("East Temple") was founded in 796, just after the imperial capital was moved to Kyoto, as one of two great temples flanking the city's southern entrance gate. It was given to the monk Kūkai — better known as Kōbō Daishi, founder of the esoteric Shingon school — in 823, and has been a centre of Shingon practice and Buddhist art ever since.
The temple's five-storey pagoda, finished in 1644, is at 55 metres the tallest wooden pagoda in Japan and is one of Kyoto's defining skyline elements. Inside the main kondō and lecture halls is a remarkable three-dimensional mandala of twenty-one statues arranged by Kūkai to represent the cosmos of esoteric Buddhism, including some of the finest ninth-century Heian-period sculpture in the country. The vast monthly flea market (Kōbō-san) on the 21st of each month is one of the best in Kansai.