Enpukuji Temple

A Hillside Temple Linked to Gyoki

Enpukuji Temple (圓福寺, also written 円福寺 and Enpuku-ji) is a temple of the Shingon Risshu school in Arisato-cho, Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture, whose grounds hold a main hall built in 1371 and two late Kamakura-period stone hōkyōin pagodas, one of them dated 1293. Its mountain name is Ryūgesan, and its principal image is a seated Amida Buddha.

The main hall and the pair of pagodas are each designated by the national government as an Important Cultural Property: the hall in 1922 and the pagodas in 1955.

How the Temple Came to Be

Tradition credits the founding of Enpukuji Temple to the Nara-period monk Gyōki. The Yamato Hokubu 88 Temples pilgrimage association places it in the Tenpyō Shōhō era (749 to 757), at the command of Emperor Shōmu. Ikoma City, however, treats Gyōki's founding as tradition and says the details are unknown.

For documentary evidence, Ikoma City points to a village register of 1774, the Jūikkason Murakagami, which lists Enpukuji as a branch temple of Hōon-in at Upper Daigoji, a Shingon house. The temple is therefore thought to have been Shingon originally. Today it belongs to the Shingon Risshu school.

The Grounds

The temple sits on a ridge of the Ikoma hills, and stone walls and a flight of steps mark the approach. At the top, the main hall stands in the grounds with the two pagodas side by side. The precinct is compact, so you can move between a wooden hall of the early Muromachi period and stone pagodas some 80 years older in a few steps.

Visiting

According to the Yamato Hokubu 88 Temples association, the grounds of Enpukuji Temple are open to visitors free of charge and there is free parking. No published information covers access to the interior of the main hall; contact the temple if you hope to see inside.

By public transport, walk about 15 minutes from Ichibu Station on the Kintetsu Ikoma Line, or take a bus to the Enpukuji stop. Ikoma City places the temple 1.6 kilometres northwest of Minami-Ikoma Station on the same line.

Viewing conditions for each structure are given on its own page.