Zendoji Temple (Koriyama)

What Is Zendoji Temple in Koriyama?

Zendoji Temple (善導寺, Zendō-ji) is a Jodo Shu (Pure Land) Buddhist temple in Shimizudai, Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, said to have been founded in 1579, and its Main Hall, Priests' Quarters and Bell Tower are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan.

The Main Hall and the Priests' Quarters entered the register in 2001, the Bell Tower in 2015. The temple's mountain name is Kōmyōzan and its cloister name Goshin-in. Temples called Zendoji stand in several parts of Japan, Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture among them, so this site labels this one Zendoji Temple (Koriyama).

One building name has two spellings. The Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Jodo Shu temple directory write the priests' quarters as 庫裡, while Koriyama City's catalogue of cultural properties uses 庫裏. Both are read kuri.

Founding, Fires and Rebuilding at Zendoji

According to the Jodo Shu directory, Zendoji was founded in 1579 by a monk named Ryōkyū (良吸, also written 良岌). He was a disciple of Ryōshin, the fifteenth abbot of Entsūji in Ōsawa, Shimotsuke Province, now the town of Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture. Entsūji was the head temple of the Nagoe branch of Jodo Shu.

From the late Edo period into Meiji, the temple lost its buildings again and again. The directory records that a fire spreading from nearby burned it in 1807, and that the rebuilt complex went up in flames in 1868, during the Boshin War that ended shogunal rule. Koriyama City's catalogue dates that loss to the fourteenth day of the eighth month of 1868. In 1885 the temple moved to its present site from the back streets west of Nakamachi, near today's Mizuho Bank branch, only to burn once more in 1900.

The present Main Hall was built after that fire. Its ridgepole went up in 1909 and the hall was dedicated in 1913. The Bell Tower was rebuilt in 1958. A program of work on the temple buildings began in 2001, when a new Jizō Hall was also put up, and finished in 2003.

The principal image is a seated Amida Buddha. The temple describes it as a late Heian work, from the period of rule by retired emperors, in the manner of the sculptor Jōchō, restored in the Meiji era by Yamamoto Zuiun, a senior pupil of Takamura Kōun. The temple also thinks its pedestal and halo were modeled on those of the seated Amida at Hōkaiji in Kyoto.

The Three Registered Buildings of Zendoji Temple

All three are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Buildings), and all were registered under the same criterion, as works that serve as a model of design. They joined the register in two stages.

• Main Hall: ridgepole raised in 1909. Single-story timber building with a tiled roof, building area 322 square meters. Registered November 20, 2001, as number 07-0061.
• Priests' Quarters: built in 1883. Timber, single story with a partial second floor, tiled roof, building area 282 square meters. Registered the same day as number 07-0062.
• Bell Tower: built in 1958. Timber with a tiled roof, area 14 square meters. Registered August 4, 2015, as number 07-0161.

The Priests' Quarters is the oldest of the three and the Bell Tower the youngest, with about 75 years between them. Within one small precinct you can compare a Meiji temple residence, a late-Meiji hall by a celebrated master carpenter, and a postwar belfry in which a government conservation engineer borrowed the forms of Japan's earliest temples.

Walking the Grounds of Zendoji

The Main Hall stands at the center of the grounds. The Agency's description places the Priests' Quarters on its north side, joined to it by a corridor, with the east gable end of its hip-and-gable roof serving as the front. The Bell Tower stands in the eastern part of the grounds. On the map, the three buildings lie within about 40 meters of one another.

Start in front of the Main Hall, under its entrance porch, and take in the great roof. Then walk around to the north and look at the Priests' Quarters from the east, where its gable and upper-floor windows face you squarely. Finish at the Bell Tower, where the railed gallery and thick round columns are best seen up close.

Beyond the three registered buildings, the grounds hold a Jizō Hall. Koriyama's tourism association notes two stone monuments: one beside the Main Hall carved with the nembutsu, Namu Amida Butsu, in the hand of Yūten Shōnin, an Edo-period priest who had the devotion of the Tokugawa family, and the Katabirazuka, a stone bearing a haiku by Matsuo Bashō, rebuilt in 2020 beside the Jizō Hall.

Observances and Seasonal Flowers at Zendoji

The Jodo Shu directory lists the temple's yearly observances: the Shushōe service on New Year's Day, Gyokie on May 14, the Segaki service for wandering spirits on September 14, services at the spring and autumn equinoxes, and the ringing of the temple bell on New Year's Eve.

The tourism association points to two flowers. Gyoikō, a cherry with pale green blossoms, opens from late April to early May. Lotuses flower around the Main Hall from early July to early September.

Getting to Zendoji Temple and Visiting

Zendoji is in central Koriyama, a walk of 10 to 12 minutes from JR Koriyama Station. Koriyama City's catalogue gives 10 minutes and the tourism association 12. The Jodo Shu directory lists parking for 10 cars and 1 bus.

The same directory marks the temple as open to visitors, able to receive groups and able to respond in foreign languages. No visiting hours or admission fee are published, though, and as of October 2026 no special opening of the hall interiors had been announced. Zendoji keeps a cemetery and holds memorial services, so pick a time that will not interrupt them, and telephone the temple (024-922-0517) if you would like to go inside a hall. Keep photographs to the exteriors, and do not take pictures during services.