Adachi Yasumori is famous for having been assassinated in the Shimotsuki Incident 1285, but this talk will examine the impact of his brief but significant programme of reform and his investment in Japan’s divine defences. Yasumori’s policies on national defence, religious institutions, and land were intertwined with national politics and the local context of his personal and familial involvement with Kōyasan and Amano. Long recognised for his connection to the esoteric centre at Kōyasan and the construction of milestones for the pilgrim route (the completion ceremony for which may have afforded his soon-to-be murderers the opportunity to prepare their coup) the effects of his religious policy and investment in Amano and Kōya had longer-term effects, setting in motion a forceful renegotiation of the relationships between temple and shrine and the leading families of the surrounding region, marking a key point in the transformation of the social and political order of Kii Province in the medieval period.