Myokoji Temple (Fukuoka)

About Myokoji Temple

Myokoji Temple (明光寺, Myōkō-ji) is a temple of the Sōtō school in Yoshizuka 3-chome, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City, whose late-Edo wooden meditation hall and reinforced-concrete main hall and tamaya memorial hall of 1924 and 1926 were entered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 14, 2021.

The temple lies about 1.2 kilometers northeast of Hakata Station, measured in a straight line, in a residential district of close-packed houses. It is a working parish temple with its own cemetery, and it also houses the Kyushu regional teaching center of the Sōtō school, one of nine such centers in Japan that promote the school's outreach and collect material for its teaching work.

What makes the three registrations interesting is the mix of dates and materials. The meditation hall is timber and goes back to the Edo period. The main hall and the tamaya were built in the mid-1920s in reinforced concrete, yet both copy the familiar outline of a Japanese temple building. At Myōkōji you can compare, within a few dozen meters, the timber tradition and one of its early translations into concrete.

Layout of the Myokoji Temple Grounds

The Council for Cultural Affairs described the Myokoji Temple grounds with the main hall as the reference point.

• The main hall stands at the center of the grounds and faces southwest. At 263 square meters it is the largest of the three.
• The tamaya stands beside it to the northwest. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a hall for memorial tablets (ihai).
• The meditation hall (zendō) stands west of the main hall and faces southeast. It is the only timber building of the three.

By the database coordinates, the tamaya is about 19 meters from the main hall and the meditation hall about 27 meters, so the three sit close together. Starting in front of the main hall and walking round to the left, toward the northwest, brings you to the tamaya and then the meditation hall.

The main hall and the meditation hall face different ways, southwest and southeast respectively, so you need to change position to see each one head-on.

How Myokoji Temple Moved and Rebuilt

In the closing years of the Edo period, Myōkōji stood in the town of Hakata, and it has a link with Nomura Bōtō-ni, the poet and nun remembered for sheltering loyalist activists in the 1860s. According to Fukuoka City, after her husband died she had her head shaved at Myōkōji under its abbot, Genryō Kyodō, at the age of 54.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that the meditation hall was moved to its present site in 1910, and Fukuoka City likewise dates the move to the end of the Meiji era. The temple itself appears to have moved to Yoshizuka at about the same time. That makes the late-Edo meditation hall the oldest building in the relocated temple. It was altered again in 1916 and around 1959.

Later, a fire destroyed the main hall and the tamaya. Fukuoka City's heritage newsletter says both were rebuilt in reinforced concrete precisely because it resisted fire, while the meditation hall escaped the flames. The pairing visitors see today, one timber survivor beside two concrete replacements, is a direct result of that fire.

The Three Registrations at Myokoji Temple

After a recommendation by the Council for Cultural Affairs on July 16, 2021, the main hall, tamaya and meditation hall of Myokoji Temple were registered in the 100th round of registrations on October 14, 2021, under the consecutive numbers 40-0192, 40-0193 and 40-0194.

Two different criteria apply. The main hall and the tamaya were registered as models of form, as early examples of a traditional temple design rendered in reinforced concrete. The Agency notes the high quality of workmanship in the main hall down to its details, and says the tamaya, together with the main hall, shows what early concrete construction looked like. The meditation hall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, as a rare late-Edo zendō surviving in the grounds.

The main hall was renovated in 2010 and the tamaya around 1962. All three belong to Myōkōji and remain in everyday use.

Visiting Myokoji Temple

Myokoji Temple is not set up for sightseeing, and it publishes no opening hours or admission fee. The exteriors of all three buildings can be seen from the grounds, but people come here to visit family graves and memorial services are held, so keep your voice down and give way to any ceremony. No interior opening is advertised and there is no published policy on photography. If you hope to see inside or to photograph the buildings, contact the temple first (092-621-2698).

By train, get off at Yoshizuka Station on the JR Kagoshima Line. Online maps put the walk from the station's east exit at about 12 minutes. From Hakata Station the temple is roughly 1.2 kilometers northeast in a straight line, an easy walk.

Listings disagree on whether visitors can park at the temple, so check with Myōkōji before coming by car.