Kodenji Temple Main Hall

A Muromachi Hall Called Owari's Most Beautiful

The Kodenji Temple Main Hall (高田寺本堂, Kodenji hondo) is the mid-Muromachi main hall of Iozan Kodenji in Kodenji, Kitanagoya City, Aichi Prefecture; it was protected under earlier law on April 15, 1920, and became an Important Cultural Property under the current law. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as 5 ken by 5 ken, a single storey under a hip-and-gable cypress-bark roof.

According to Aichi Prefecture's tourism site, the temple is said to have been founded by the monk Gyoki in 720, and the main hall was once described as the most beautiful building in Owari.

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The hall was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1920. The Agency dates it to the mid-Muromachi period (late 14th to mid-15th century): a square hall of 5 ken under a hip-and-gable cypress-bark roof. The Aichi tourism site says the beauty of its cypress-bark roof still stands out today.

The principal image, a seated Yakushi Nyorai, is also an Important Cultural Property, a hidden Buddha designated together with the hall under the earlier law and shown once every 50 years (Aichi Prefecture). That a Muromachi hall and its principal image survive together is central to the temple's value.

What to Look For

Look at the square plan, 5 ken on each side, and the hip-and-gable cypress-bark roof above it. Though the temple is now surrounded by houses, the hall's unhurried presence still conveys its age (Aichi Prefecture).

The Aichi tourism site notes that a shrine stands next to the temple, a survival of the old fusion of Shinto and Buddhism that is now rare. The Edo-period sculptor Enku is said to have been so moved by the Yakushi image that he vowed to carve 120,000 Buddhist statues in his lifetime.

Visiting

According to Aichi Prefecture's tourism site, the temple is open every day and has parking. Take a Meitetsu bus bound for Nagoya Airport from Nishiharu Station on the Meitetsu Inuyama Line to the Kodenji-kita stop. By car it is about 15 minutes from the Komaki exit of the Meishin Expressway or 5 minutes from the Toyoyama-minami exit of the Nagoya Expressway. Kodenji Temple is at 383 Kodenji, Kitanagoya City (0568-21-0887).