Sojiji Temple Soin

Sojiji Temple Soin: the founding ground of a Soto Zen head temple

Sojiji Temple Soin (總持寺祖院, also written Sōjiji Soin) is a Sōtō school Zen temple in Monzen, Monzen-machi, Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, standing on the ground where Keizan Jōkin founded Sōjiji in 1321; sixteen of its buildings, including the Daisodō, the Butsuden and the main gate, were designated an Important Cultural Property on December 9, 2024. Three further structures, the Kōshakudai, the Zen'etsurō corridor and the Hakusan Well, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 7, 2008.

The formal name of the temple is Shogakusan Sōjiji. After a fire in the Meiji era the head temple's functions moved to Tsurumi in Yokohama, and the original site on the Noto Peninsula became known as the Soin, the "ancestral temple." The temple puts its grounds at roughly 20,000 tsubo, about 66,000 square meters. Because each designation and registration was made separately, this site gives every listed building its own page and gathers the history, layout and visiting information for Sojiji Temple Soin as a whole here.

Seven centuries at Sojiji Temple Soin

According to the temple's own history, Keizan founded Sōjiji in 1321, and the following summer Emperor Go-Daigo, who had become his follower, issued an edict naming it a temple for imperial prayers. Its network eventually grew to more than 16,000 branch temples across Japan. Wajima City notes that the Tokugawa shogunate recognized Sōjiji as a head temple of the Soto school, and that patronage from the Kaga domain and local believers turned the streets around it into a thriving temple town.

On April 13, 1898, fire destroyed most of the main buildings. The center of the school's activity then moved to Tsurumi in Kanagawa Prefecture, while the Noto site was rebuilt as an ancestral shrine. A handful of structures had survived the fire, among them the Dentōin, the Jiunkaku and the sutra repository, and halls built from the 1910s to the 1930s filled in around them. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the fact that the Soin kept a rank equal to the new head temple and preserved the scale and arrangement it had held since the Edo period.

The 2007 Noto Peninsula earthquake caused heavy damage at Sojiji Temple Soin. Repairs took years, and the temple and Wajima City declared full recovery in October 2021, the 700th anniversary of the founding. Barely two years later, on January 1, 2024, another earthquake struck.

How the halls of Sojiji Temple Soin are laid out

The approach passes first through the Sanjushōkan, a Kōraimon gate dating from around 1803. Beyond it rises the two-storied main gate (sanmon), which the temple describes as built entirely of zelkova, 17.4 meters tall and 20 meters wide, with a large plaque reading "Shogakusan" in the hand of Maeda Toshinari on the upper story. The records disagree on its completion: the temple gives 1932, while the Agency's database gives 1934.

Past the gate stands the Butsuden (Buddha hall) of 1913, enshrining Shakyamuni. The Daisodō, also of 1913, is a hall peculiar to Sōjiji that serves as both lecture hall and founders' hall; Keizan is enshrined at the center, with Dōgen and the second patriarch Gasan to either side. Corridors link these halls, and around them survive Edo-period buildings such as the sutra repository and the main hall of the Hakusan Shrine, which at 1661 is the oldest building on the grounds.

The Agency's descriptions place the three registered structures as follows: the Kōshakudai is the priests' quarters west of the Butsuden, the Zen'etsurō is a corridor running north to south between the main gate and the Kōshakudai, and the Hakusan Well house stands inside the cloister, west of the front of the Daisodō. Keizan's mausoleum, the Dentōin Mitamaya of 1822, and the adjoining Hōkōdō ossuary hall are also within the precinct.

Designated and registered buildings at Sojiji Temple Soin

The following sixteen buildings at Sojiji Temple Soin were designated an Important Cultural Property on December 9, 2024, with one section of boundary wall (sujibei) included as an attached item. Dates follow the Agency for Cultural Affairs database.

• Daisodō: 1913
• Butsuden: 1913
• Main gate: 1934
• Bell and drum tower: around 1913
• Cloister attached to the bell and drum tower: around 1924
• Hōkōdō: 1809, moved in 1911
• Eshinrō corridor: around 1913
• Genpūrō corridor: around 1924
• Dentōin Mitamaya: 1822
• Dentōin Karamon gate: 1913
• Jiunkaku Kannon Hall: 1811
• Hakusan Shrine main hall: 1661
• Hakusan storehouse: late Edo period, moved in 1821
• Sutra repository: 1743
• Sanjushōkan gate: around 1803
• Rear gate: 1823, moved between the late Meiji and early Taishō eras

The designation followed a recommendation by the Council for Cultural Affairs on October 18, 2024, on the grounds of excellent design and high historical value. Wajima City explains that it brought together buildings that had previously held other statuses, among them the sutra repository (a prefectural property), the Jiunkaku and Dentōin (city properties), and the Daisodō, Butsuden and main gate, which had been nationally registered.

Three structures remain Registered Tangible Cultural Properties: the Kōshakudai (around 1954), the Zen'etsurō (Taishō era) and the Hakusan Well (around 1912). All three were registered on March 7, 2008, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The 2024 earthquake and the rebuilding plan at Sojiji Temple Soin

The January 1, 2024 earthquake damaged many buildings at Sojiji Temple Soin, from the main gate to the Daisodō and the Butsuden. The damage report the temple published on January 29 lists the Zen'etsurō as completely destroyed and the Hakusan Well and the Zen'etsurō middle gate as collapsed, and a large landslide came down on the hillside behind the Daisodō. Visits resumed on June 15, 2024 within safe areas only, and normal visiting returned on April 1, 2025, once the reception building had been repaired. Some areas remain closed.

The temple set up a reconstruction office on October 18, 2024 and has outlined a program running from February 2025 to March 2034. Under the plan drawn up at that time, the sixteen designated buildings will be repaired in three phases at an estimated 3.1 billion yen, and the three registered structures at about 400 million yen, with work on the Kōshakudai from April 2028 and on the Zen'etsurō and Hakusan Well from April 2032. The two collapsed structures were taken apart between July and December 2024, and their numbered members are kept in storage.

Opening hours and admission at Sojiji Temple Soin

Sojiji Temple Soin is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., shortened to 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in winter, from December 21 to March 20. New Year's Day (January 1) is handled separately. Individual admission is 500 yen for adults, 400 yen for high school and junior high school students and 200 yen for elementary school pupils, with discounts for groups of 30 or more. These are the fees in effect from April 1, 2026, checked on the temple's website in October 2026.

Guided tours are paid and must be booked in advance, and guides from the Ishikawa Prefecture Tourism League's cultural tourism program are also available. Zazen sessions and Buddhist vegetarian meals can be reserved, but overnight temple stays are suspended for now because of the earthquake. Access is restricted around buildings under repair, so each building's page explains what can and cannot be seen.

Getting to Sojiji Temple Soin

By public transport, the temple recommends the Hokuriku Railroad express buses bound for the Noto area from Kanazawa Station. Local buses also run from Anamizu Station on the Noto Railway; the temple gives the ride as about 20 minutes, while Ishikawa Prefecture's official tourism site says about 35 minutes. Noto Airport is about 30 minutes away by car, and a shared "Furusato Taxi" runs on reservation for 1,800 yen. Drivers can reach the temple in about 25 minutes from the Anamizu interchange on the Noto Satoyama Kaido expressway.

As of May 2025 the temple listed five parking areas nearby. The lot in front of the Monzen branch office holds only 4 cars, so most visitors use Horibata Fukko Hiroba (5 minutes on foot) or Zen no Sato Hiroba (8 minutes) along the Sojiji-dori shopping street. The street is narrow, so drive slowly and give way to pedestrians.