Shogakuji Temple (Nahari)

About Shogakuji Temple (Nahari)

Shogakuji Temple (Nahari) is a Koyasan Shingon temple at Otsu, Nahari Town, Aki District, Kochi Prefecture, whose main hall and stone wall, both built in 1930, were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on January 31, 2003 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The name is read Shōgaku-ji (正覚寺); the older database spelling Shokakuji is a misreading.

Its mountain name is Kōjusan, and it is Temple No. 9 of the Shikoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. According to the pilgrimage association, the principal image is Kōbō Daishi and the temple's Kannon manifestation is Seyaku Kannon, the medicine-giving Kannon. The Agency for Cultural Affairs places the grounds just south of the national highway through the town.

A Temple Rebuilt More Than Once

The Shikoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage association relates that Shogakuji was founded by the monk Gyōki in the Jinki era (724 to 729). Its original principal image, a Shō Kannon said to be Gyōki's own work, and two hidden images of Fudō Myōō and Bishamonten were all lost in a fire in Tenshō 11 (1583); since then a statue of Kōbō Daishi has served as the principal image.

The same account says that around 1600 the temple lodged overland travellers and the shogunate's inspectors, and that Yamauchi Kazutoyo stayed here when he first entered Tosa as its new lord. Closed in 1871 during the anti-Buddhist movement of the early Meiji era, it was later revived.

The association gives the fire as Tenshō 11 but pairs it with the year 1582; Tenshō 11 corresponds to 1583, which is the year used here.

The Two Registered Structures

Both structures date from 1930 and were registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Shogakuji Temple Main Hall stands near the west edge of the grounds facing east. It is a single-storey wooden hall, 4 bays by 4 bays, under a pyramidal hōgyō-zukuri roof with a porch-like kōhai in front and a building area of 34 square metres. A new main hall was later added behind it, and the old hall now serves as its outer worship space. The pilgrimage association also singles out its steeply pitched tiled roof.

The Shogakuji Temple Stone Wall runs 31 metres along the south edge of the grounds, with a gate a little east of centre. Built of fairly large rounded stones of 20 to 30 centimetres, it stands 1.5 metres high and 1 metre thick, and is known as an ishiguro, a windbreak against storm winds off the sea. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it creates a temple setting of the early Showa era with few parallels.

Visiting and Location

Shogakuji is at 1718-1 Otsu, Nahari Town. The nearest station is Nahari, the terminus of the Tosa Kuroshio Railway Gomen-Nahari Line.

The pilgrimage association notes that neither large coaches nor minibuses can enter the grounds, and that pilgrims collecting the Shikoku 33 Kannon stamp (nōkyō) should do so at Temple No. 10, Kōshōji, rather than here. No visiting hours or fees are published.

Each of the two structures is described in its own article.