Seiganto-ji stands on the forested slopes above Nachi Falls in Wakayama Prefecture, a place where the sound and sight of water have shaped religious life for centuries. The temple is not the waterfall and it is not the neighboring Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine. They are distinct sacred places, close together in a landscape where Buddhist and Shinto traditions have long met.
The temple’s own account traces its foundation to a story about Ragyo, an Indian monk who reached the Kumano coast and discovered Nachi Falls during the reign of Emperor Nintoku. This is a foundation tradition preserved by the temple, not a date established by surviving contemporary records. The official account says that, about two centuries later, buildings were raised and an image of Nyoirin Kannon was enshrined in the time of Empress Suiko.
