Jofukuji Temple Detached Room

About the Jofukuji Temple Detached Room

The Jofukuji Temple Detached Room (浄福寺離れ座敷, Jōfuku-ji Hanare Zashiki) is a Zashiki guest wing built around 1916 behind the main hall of Jofukuji in Kobo, Okawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2023.

The Jofukuji Temple Detached Room is a single-storey timber building with a hip-and-gable Irimoya-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles and a building area of 60 m². A corridor links it to the main hall. Okawa City records the temple's tradition that it was built as a room for receiving visiting priests.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists repairs in 2004, 2016 and 2021.

Why Jofukuji's Detached Room Was Registered

The Jofukuji Temple Detached Room was registered as a model of its type of design. The Agency's assessment turns on the alcove arrangement of the main room, which it describes as distinctive, closely resembling the one in the Former Yoshihara Family Residence nearby in Kobo, and expressive of local character.

Okawa City adds a different reason. Kobo and Enokizu keep many traditional houses, yet few of them date from the Taisho period, so this room is a valuable record of how the district laid out its reception rooms at that time.

A Seven-Mat Room and Its Alcove

The Jofukuji Temple Detached Room is planned as a pair of connected tatami rooms wrapped by a corridor, with a toilet wing projecting as a Tsunoya at the northwest corner.

The feature to look for is the alcove wall of the inner room. It has a Tokonoma with a built-in Tsukeshoin writing bay, and the Tokowaki shelving bay beside it is pushed out into the corridor. That extra depth let the builders add one more tatami mat, turning the room into a seven-mat space.

Because the Agency compares the arrangement with the Yoshihara house, it seems the Jofukuji Temple Detached Room was fitted out less like a temple building and more in the way Kobo's townhouses fitted out their best rooms.

Visiting the Jofukuji Temple Detached Room

The Jofukuji Temple Detached Room stands behind the main hall, so it is hard to see from the gate. The interior is not normally open, and official information does not say whether guided tours include it (checked September 2026). Anyone hoping to see inside should ask the Kobo-Enokizu preservation society well in advance.

Jofukuji is a working temple, so ask permission before walking to the back of the precinct. No official guidance on photography could be found. Directions are on the Jofukuji Temple (Okawa) page.