Chofukuji Temple (Nagaoka)

Chofukuji Temple in Nagaoka at a Glance

Chofukuji Temple (長福寺, Chōfuku-ji) is a temple of the Shinshu Otani-ha branch of Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land) Buddhism in Miyamoto Higashikata-machi, Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture; its gate of 1774 and its main hall rebuilt in 1855 were both added to the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on November 29, 2006.

The temple's full name carries a "mountain name," Gagakuzan (峨岳山), which the temple's own history traces to a line in Kakunyo's illustrated biography of the founder Shinran describing a lofty, craggy peak to the east. Chofukuji is a common temple name in Japan, so the temple itself uses the longer form Gagakuzan Chofukuji, and this site labels it Chofukuji Temple (Nagaoka).

The temple stands in the Miyamoto district on the west bank of the Shinano River, roughly 9.5 kilometers west of Nagaoka Station as the crow flies. Its principal image is a standing figure of Amida Buddha, and the Niigata diocese of the Otani-ha lists it in its Chuetsu 11th district.

From Shinano to Miyamoto: How Chofukuji Got Here

According to the temple's own chronology, Chofukuji began in the Daiei era of the early sixteenth century, when a monk named Jitsugen built a thatched hermitage in Minochi District in the province of Shinano, today's Nagano Prefecture. The temple counts Jitsugen as its founder. The community then moved by stages, first to Kashiwazaki and then to Miyamoto Horinouchi in Koshi District, before the monk Gen'ei settled it at Inaba in Miyamoto Higashikata in 1625 and the name Chofukuji was granted.

The buildings followed over the next two centuries. A first bell tower went up in 1717, the present gate was built under the monk Genshin in 1774, and in the eighth month of 1855 the main hall was rebuilt under the monk Echo. The chronology calls that hall the largest temple building in the surrounding villages and names its master carpenter as Takagi Jinbei Mototsuna of Gotanda.

The temple also served as a schoolhouse. Miyamoto Elementary School opened in borrowed temple space in January 1874 and stayed for one year and ten months, until its own building was finished in October 1875.

In the small hours of December 6, 2014, a huge limb, about a meter thick, broke off an old zelkova in the grounds, a tree thought to be around 500 years old, under strong wind and heavy wet snow. It fell straight onto the bell tower, wrecking half of the roof and three of its four posts. The tower was rebuilt in December 2016, and a completion service was held on June 10, 2017.

Chofukuji's Two Registered Buildings

Both buildings at Chofukuji Temple were registered on the same day under consecutive numbers, 15-0231 for the main hall and 15-0232 for the gate, with official notice published on December 19, 2006.

• Main Hall: built in 1855; single-story timber building with copper roofing; building area 449 square meters. Registered as a model of its type.
• Main Gate: built in 1774; timber gate with copper roofing and flanking walls; frontage 4.5 meters. Registered as a structure that would be difficult to reproduce.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs presents the main hall as an example of a late Edo Shin Buddhist main hall, and values the gate for its ridge tablet, which fixes the construction date, and for carvings and incised ornament worth a close look. The gate is the elder by 81 years, so the two buildings that front the temple set mid-eighteenth-century carpentry beside work from the very end of the Edo period.

Walking Through the Chofukuji Grounds

The Chofukuji compound faces west. The main hall looks west, and the gate stands out in front of it on the same axis, about 50 meters away on the map, so that once you pass through the gate heading east you are looking straight at the hall.

Start outside the gate and take in the whole front, including the walls that turn back at right angles on either side. Walk through and up to the projecting entrance porch of the hall. Afterward, look for the rebuilt bell tower and the old zelkova beside it; the tower is not a registered building, but it records the temple's most recent chapter. On the way out, glance up at the gate's eaves from the inside, where the rafters line up at a different angle than they do from the road.

Getting to Chofukuji and Visiting Etiquette

By public transport, the route to Chofukuji Temple is an Echigo Kotsu bus from the Ote exit on the west side of Nagaoka Station, running through Sekihara toward Miyamoto. Services are infrequent, and we could not confirm the name of the closest stop from an official source, so check the Echigo Kotsu timetable before you set out and plan on a taxi or car if the times do not suit. No official information on parking was found.

The temple does not publish visiting hours or an admission fee. The Otani-ha Niigata diocese notes that a regular Dharma talk is held on the 17th of each month from April to October, open to anyone for a small offering, and that the Hoonko memorial service for Shinran takes place on the mornings of April 17 and 18. Those days draw the congregation, so if you want time with the buildings choose another day and let the temple know before you walk in. Keep photography to the exteriors and put the camera away during services.