Legend of Giō

The Heike Monogatari, Book One, recounts that Taira no Kiyomori favored the shirabyōshi dancer Giō, but when a new dancer named Hotoke Gozen appeared at his court, his attention turned away. Giō was driven from his household and built a hermitage in Sagano, taking monastic vows together with her mother Toji and her sister Gijo. Later summoned to pour drinks at Kiyomori's gathering, Giō endured deep humiliation, which deepened her practice. Hotoke Gozen herself eventually left Kiyomori and joined the women at the Sagano hermitage, where the four devoted themselves to nenbutsu practice. Giō is said to have died in Jōan 2 (1172).

The episode runs through Kiyomori's favor, the arrival of Hotoke Gozen, the eviction of Giō, the move to Sagano, the humiliation at Kiyomori's gathering, the renunciation, the arrival of Hotoke Gozen at the hermitage, and the shared practice.

Giō-ji in Sagano Toriimoto Kosaka-chō, Ukyō-ku, Kyoto, is the inheriting temple of the tradition. It is a nunnery affiliated with the Daikaku-ji branch of Shingon Buddhism. The temple was abandoned in early Meiji and was restored in 1895.

Heike Monogatari, Book One, "Giō" (Kamakura-period compilation). The Igarashi Chikara-edited Heike Monogatari (Seinen Shōnen Nihon Bungaku, Shibundō, 1943, NDL pid/1169092) preserves a pre-1945 critical text.