The Smaller Building on the Kushiro Ridge
Hongyoji Old Ossuary (本行寺旧納骨堂, Hongyō-ji Kyū-Nōkotsudō) is a 1931 charnel hall standing immediately north of the main hall at Hongyoji temple in Yayoi, Kushiro City, Hokkaido, and it was entered on Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 13 March 2025.
It is easy to walk past. Compared with the 841-square-metre main hall it is small: 88 square metres, one storey, a plain rectangle under a steel-plate roof. A covered corridor runs between the two buildings, which is the first clue that the ossuary was never meant to be read on its own.
That relationship is, in fact, the reason it was registered.
Registered for the View, Not the Design
Japan's registration system for buildings works through three criteria, and a structure needs to meet only one. The main hall next door qualified as a model of design. The ossuary qualified under a different heading altogether: contribution to the historic landscape of the nation.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs put it directly in its assessment, noting that the substantial exterior of the ossuary forms the compound's setting together with the main hall. The two buildings received consecutive register numbers, 01-0172 for the hall and 01-0173 for the ossuary, in the 109th round of registrations, and both took effect with the gazette notice of 13 March 2025.
The distinction is worth holding onto as you stand in the compound. One building was judged on what it is. The other was judged on what it does to everything around it.
What a Nokotsudo Is
A nōkotsudō holds cremated remains. In Japanese practice the ashes of the dead may rest in a family grave, but they may equally be placed in a building maintained by the temple, kept in tiers of compartments and visited on memorial days like any other grave.
Inside Hongyoji's old ossuary there is a single room with a board floor, and the storage shelving for the remains occupies the southwest corner. No division into chapels, no processional route: one room, doing one job.
Jodo Shinshu, the school to which Hongyoji belongs, is the largest Buddhist tradition in Hokkaido, carried north by settlers from Hokuriku and elsewhere during the Meiji period. Buildings of this kind are a normal part of a Shinshu temple compound rather than an unusual one, which is part of what makes an early example worth keeping.
Never Repaired
The temple states that the ossuary has undergone no restoration since it was completed in 1931, and that the building visitors see today is as it was built.
For a wooden structure standing ninety-odd years on the Pacific edge of Hokkaido, in a city known for its fog, that is a claim worth pausing over. Protection against fire and rot was designed in from the start. The roof is steel plate rather than the copper used next door, a cheaper and more workaday material. The walls are finished in mortar render, and the lower portion is scored with joint lines to read as stone, exactly the treatment given to the main hall six years earlier. The same hands were at work: the temple attributes the ossuary to the Mase daiku, the shrine-and-temple carpenters from Niigata Prefecture who built the hall.
What survives here is not a restored building. It is an unrestored one, which is a scarcer thing.
Details Worth Slowing Down For
The ossuary faces west, and its roof is irimoya, hipped-and-gabled, set tsuma-iri, meaning the entrance is on the gable end rather than the long side. A smaller irimoya canopy projects over that entrance, a piece of formality that a purely functional storage building would not need.
Along the flanks run rows of double-hung windows, each topped by a comb-shaped transom, the kushigata ranma. The repetition gives the wall a rhythm that reads as vaguely Western, and pairs oddly and pleasantly with the temple roof above it.
The interior holds a detail that visitors tend to remember once it is pointed out. At the base of the light fittings, plant ornament in a Western manner has been worked into the surface: a small piece of care applied to a building whose primary purpose was storage of the dead.
Can You See It?
The ossuary is currently used for storage and is not routinely open. The temple has stated an intention to prepare it for public access from around 2026, and anyone hoping to go inside should telephone 0154-41-5329 to ask about the current position before travelling. The building is fully visible from the compound, and photographing the exterior presents no problem.
Getting there means a climb. Hongyoji sits about two kilometres from JR Kushiro Station, roughly thirty minutes on foot across Nusamai Bridge and up toward Yonemachi; a taxi does it in under ten minutes. The grounds are open during daylight and there is no charge. Hongyoji is a working parish temple, so services take priority over sightseeing.
Yonemachi Park sits alongside the temple district with a lighthouse-shaped lookout over the harbour. Registration of the two Hongyoji buildings brought Kushiro's tally of designated and registered cultural properties to twenty-nine, and the certificates were handed over by the city's mayor at the temple in July 2025.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside Hongyoji Old Ossuary?
- Not as a matter of course. The building serves as storage at present, and the temple has said it is being prepared for public access from around 2026. Telephone 0154-41-5329 to check the current situation. The exterior can be seen and photographed freely from the temple grounds.
- When was Hongyoji Old Ossuary built and when was it registered?
- It was built in 1931, the sixth year of the Showa era. The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended registration on 22 November 2024, and it took effect on 13 March 2025 alongside the main hall. Its register number is 01-0173.
- Why was Hongyoji Old Ossuary registered as a cultural property?
- Under the criterion covering buildings over fifty years old that contribute to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs judged that its substantial exterior, together with the main hall, creates the character of the temple compound. The main hall was registered under a different criterion, as a model of design.
- What is the nokotsudo at Hongyoji actually for?
- A nōkotsudō is a hall for cremated remains, an alternative to a family grave plot. The interior of this one is a single board-floored room with the storage shelving set in the southwest corner. It is linked to the main hall by a covered corridor.
- What should I look for on the outside of Hongyoji Old Ossuary?
- The gable-end entrance under its small irimoya canopy, the rows of double-hung windows with comb-shaped transoms along the flanks, and the mortar walls with joint lines scored into the lower section to imitate stone, the same finish used on the main hall.
- How does Hongyoji Old Ossuary differ from the main hall?
- Scale and material, mostly. The ossuary covers 88 square metres against the hall's 841, sits under a steel-plate roof rather than copper, and dates from 1931 rather than 1925. Both were built by the same Niigata carpenters and share the stone-effect wall finish.
Basic Information
| Name | Hongyoji Old Ossuary (本行寺旧納骨堂) |
|---|---|
| Location | Yayoi 2-chome 31 and others, Kushiro City, Hokkaido (postal address 2-11-22 Yayoi) |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); criterion: contribution to the historic landscape. Register number 01-0173 |
| Year Designated | Registered 13 March 2025 (recommended 22 November 2024) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, single-storey, steel-plate roof, building area 88 m², with covered corridor; built 1931 |
| Owner | Hongyoji, religious corporation |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the grounds in daylight, no charge. Interior not routinely open; preparation for public access announced for around 2026. Enquiries tel. 0154-41-5329 |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Hongyoji Old Ossuary
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015272
- Kushiro City — Hongyoji Main Hall and Hongyoji Old Ossuary, Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.kushiro.lg.jp/museum/bunkazai/1005708/bunkazai/hongyoji.html
- Hongyoji official site — Registered Tangible Cultural Property: the Old Ossuary
- https://hongyouji946.com/oldossuary/
- Hongyoji official site — About Hongyoji
- https://hongyouji946.com/about-hongyouji/
- Cultural Heritage Online — Kushiro City, Hokkaido
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/region/1/1206
Last verified: 2026.08.28