Mausoleum of Matsudaira Yorikane at Honkyoji Temple

A Samurai Mausoleum at Honkyoji

The Mausoleum of Matsudaira Yorikane at Honkyoji Temple (本堯寺松平頼該霊廟) is a mausoleum of 1868 for Matsudaira Yorikane, a member of the ruling Matsudaira family of the Takamatsu domain, in the grounds of the Hokke-sect temple Honkyoji at Nishiyamasaki-cho, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on December 5, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a single-storey wooden building with a tiled roof and a building area of 16 square metres, with a seamless stupa-type gravestone, altered in 1909, registration number 37-0444, owned by Honkyoji.

Matsudaira Yorikane and Honkyoji

A 2012 handout from a Takamatsu City heritage study session records that Matsudaira Yorikane was born in 1809 at the domain residence in Koishikawa, Edo, the eldest son of Matsudaira Yorinori, eighth lord of Takamatsu. Known as Sakon and by the art name Kingaku, he followed his mother in devout faith in the Hokke sect from childhood.

The handout adds that when the domain was branded an enemy of the court after the Battle of Toba-Fushimi in January 1868, Yorikane quieted dissent and led it to submit to the court. He died that August aged 60, and by his wish the mausoleum was built at Honkyoji. A 2019 lecture handout from the Kagawa Archaeological Center suggests that his Hokke faith is why he was not buried at Honenji, the family temple.

Honkyoji is said to have begun in the Tensho era (1573–92) as a temple linked to the Habuka family and to have moved to Nishiyamasaki around 1704–16; the graves of Yorikane and his family are in its grounds (Takamatsu City study handout).

Value as a Registered Cultural Property

The Mausoleum of Matsudaira Yorikane at Honkyoji Temple was registered as a structure that has become a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs values it as a rare surviving samurai mausoleum of the compound shrine type.

What to Look For

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, a one-bay-square pyramidal roof of pantiles covers the seamless stupa gravestone as the inner hall, joined to a hipped four-mat worship hall by a two-mat linking room. Only the inner hall has round pillars and fan-shaped rafters, setting it apart.

The Takamatsu City study handout notes that the mausoleum stands north-east of the main hall, with an inner hall, a linking corridor and a worship hall, and that the inner hall holds a large gravestone over 3 metres high.

Visiting

The Mausoleum of Matsudaira Yorikane at Honkyoji Temple is a grave building in a temple precinct. Please visit quietly, without disturbing worshippers or the temple.

The address is 850-1 Nishiyamasaki-cho, Takamatsu City.