Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple

About Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple

Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple (定義如来西方寺, Jōgi Nyorai Saihō-ji) is a Pure Land Buddhist temple in the hills of Okura, Aoba Ward, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, founded in 1706, where five buildings put up between 1927 and about 1933 became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 27, 2018. Its formal name is Gokurakusan Saihoji, but most people in Sendai simply call it Jogi-san.

The temple grew out of a story from the fall of the Taira clan in the late 12th century. Taira no Sadayoshi, a retainer of Taira no Kiyomori and his son Shigemori, is said to have fled to this valley after the clan's defeat, taken the name Jogi, and kept with him a painted image of Amida Buddha entrusted to him by Shigemori. When he died in 1198, his followers built a small hall over his grave, as he had asked, and enshrined the painting there.

In 1706 Hayasaka Genbei, a descendant of those followers, became a monk under the name Kanrensha Ryonen and formally established the temple. The painted scroll of Amida is still the principal object of worship. It is a hidden image, kept in the Main Hall and shown only on a few days each year. According to the temple, the name Sadayoshi took in hiding became the name of the place, and the Buddha came to be known as Jogi Nyorai, "the Buddha of Jogi."

The temple, Sendai City and Miyagi Prefecture all read the first part of the name as Jōgi. The national database of the Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the reading Teigi for all five buildings, so it is worth searching under both forms. This site follows the temple and writes Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple.

A Building Campaign of the Early Showa Years

The five registered buildings at Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple went up one after another within about seven years. The Sadayoshi Mausoleum Hall and the small Amulet Office came first, in 1927. The Main Gate and the Bell Tower followed in 1932, and the Water Purification Pavilion was finished around 1933. The temple says that the pavilion's completion brought the whole project to a close.

All five were designed by Hanawa Kikuzo, a master of the Kesen carpenters. These were builders from the Kesen district of Iwate Prefecture who traveled far from home to put up temples, shrines and farmhouses, and who were known for their skill. The temple names Hanawa Denkichi as head carpenter, Hanawa Dengoro as his deputy, and the carver Ishii Toramasa, whose work covers both the Main Gate and the Sadayoshi Mausoleum Hall. Because one designer and one team shaped the whole precinct, the buildings share many details. Sendai City points out, for example, that the pavilion places its tie beams and its coffered ceiling much as the Bell Tower does.

Miyagi Prefecture describes the precinct as a faithful record of how it was laid out in the early Showa period. The five buildings carry the consecutive registration numbers 04-145 to 04-149, and each was registered as a model of good design. All are now roofed in copper sheet. Sendai City notes that every one of them except the Amulet Office was originally roofed in thin wooden shingles (Kokerabuki). All five were repaired in 1957.

Walking the Grounds of Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple

The registered buildings all stand in what was once the heart of the temple. Until the present Main Hall was completed in 1999, the Sadayoshi Mausoleum Hall served as the main hall of Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple. In this older precinct an approach path runs straight from the Main Gate on the east to the mausoleum hall on the west, so walking it from the gate inward takes you past all five.

• The Main Gate marks the entrance to the old precinct. It is a two-storied gate with short walls on either side. The temple says the calligraphy of the mountain name, Gokurakusan, was written by Saito Makoto, Japan's 30th prime minister.
• The Bell Tower stands just inside the gate, on the north side of the path, to your right as you walk in.
• The Water Purification Pavilion faces the Bell Tower across the path, on the south side to your left.
• The Sadayoshi Mausoleum Hall, a six-sided hall, closes the far end of the path. It is said to stand over Sadayoshi's grave.
• The Amulet Office is a tiny building in front of the mausoleum hall, on the south side of the path.

Going by the coordinates in the national database, the Main Gate and the mausoleum hall are only about 50 meters apart, so the five buildings make a compact group. Outside the old precinct stand the Main Hall of 1999 and a five-storied pagoda dedicated in 1986. Neither of them is a registered building.

Opening Hours and Getting to Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple

The temple gives its gate hours as 8:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. for the precinct around the Sadayoshi Mausoleum Hall and 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. for the Main Hall precinct. There is no charge to enter the grounds. Prayer services and sutra copying are offered for a separate donation.

By public transport, take a Sendai City bus bound for Jogi (定義) from stop 14 at the bus terminal outside the west exit of Sendai Station and ride to the last stop, Jogi. The trip takes a little over an hour, up to about 1 hour 20 minutes. Under the fare table of the Sendai City Transportation Bureau, revised in October 2026, a one-way ticket costs 1,230 yen. Buses for Jogi also leave from Ayashi Station on the JR Senzan Line.

By car, the temple suggests leaving the Tohoku Expressway at the Sendai-Miyagi Interchange, following Route 48 toward Yamagata, turning right at the Kumagane intersection and continuing past Okura Dam. The drive takes about 45 minutes. Parking is free, with room for 300 cars. Snow and ice can cover the road in winter, and the temple asks visitors who drive to fit winter tires.

The temple bans drone photography without permission. Its website gives no other rules on photography, so keep your camera away from people at prayer and during services.