Chotokuji Temple

What Is Chotokuji Temple?

Chotokuji Temple (長徳寺, Chōtoku-ji) is a temple of the Shinshu Otani-ha branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in Daieicho, Shibata City, Niigata Prefecture, said to have been founded in 1585, and five of its structures, led by a main hall built in 1850, were entered in the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 27, 2017. Its mountain name is Shoreizan.

The precinct lies just south of the site of Shibata Castle, inside the old castle town. The five registered buildings are the main hall, the priests' quarters, an imperial lodging, a bell tower, and the main gate with its wall. Between the oldest and the newest there are about 80 years, from a late Edo gate to a set of reception rooms moved here in the Taisho era.

Founding and the Link to Horibe Yasubei

According to the temple, Chotokuji was established in 1585 by a priest named Sekine Keijun, and it has served the town of Shibata ever since.

What most visitors know Chotokuji for is its tie to Horibe Yasubei (Taketsune), one of the Forty-Seven Ronin of Ako, whose story is retold in Japan as Chushingura. Yasubei was born into the Nakayama family, retainers of the Shibata domain, and Chotokuji was that family's temple. The temple says he lived in the castle town until the age of 14. A pine in the grounds is said to have been planted by Yasubei when he left for Edo; the original tree was felled in 1997 because of age, and a second-generation pine now stands in its place, near the Nakayama family graves.

In 1913 a set of wooden statues of the Forty-Seven Ronin, owned by the popular rokyoku narrative singer Tochuken Kumoemon, was brought to Chotokuji. A hall to house them, the Gishido, was completed in 1929, and the temple says 60 paintings and calligraphies by politicians, officers, and writers who backed the project fill its coffered ceiling and walls. The Gishido and the statues are designated by Shibata City and are separate from the five nationally registered buildings.

Every year on December 14, the date of the ronin's night raid, Chotokuji holds a memorial festival for the loyal retainers in its precinct.

Five Registrations at Chotokuji and Their Dates

The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended the five Chotokuji buildings on July 21, 2017, and all of them were registered on October 27 of that year under consecutive numbers 15-460 to 15-464.

Two criteria were applied. The main hall and the imperial lodging were registered as structures that serve as a model of design, while the priests' quarters, the bell tower, and the gate and wall were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singled out the carved front of the main hall, the wide bays of the priests' quarters, and the refined finish of the imperial lodging, adding that the bell tower and the gate and wall also survive in good condition.

The dates given in the Agency's database are as follows.

• Main gate and wall: 1841
• Main hall: 1850, renovated in 1984
• Priests' quarters: mid-Meiji period (1883 to 1897)
• Bell tower: Meiji period (1868 to 1912)
• Imperial lodging: 1921

Shibata City's list of cultural properties places the bell tower in the early Showa period and records 1921 as the year the imperial lodging was moved to the temple. Because the two sources disagree on the bell tower, the Agency's date is used here, with the city's noted alongside it.

Layout of the Chotokuji Precinct

The entrance to Chotokuji is on the north side of the grounds. The main gate faces north, and from it the approach runs straight toward the main hall. Partway along, on the east side, the bell tower stands facing south.

West of the main hall, a corridor leads to the priests' quarters, and the imperial lodging is attached to the south side of the priests' quarters. These three buildings form a single connected block.

A natural route is to look at the gate and wall first, walk up the approach to the front of the bell tower, study the porch of the main hall, and then go round to the west to see the priests' quarters from outside. The imperial lodging is normally closed, so plan to view it only from where the grounds allow.

Visiting Chotokuji Temple

The Shibata City Tourism Association lists the grounds of Chotokuji as free to walk around, and no admission fee is given. The Gishido is open to the public only on December 14, the day of the memorial festival.

The imperial lodging is not usually open. A local newspaper reported that it was shown to the public for the first time in June 2024, during Shibata Terabiraki, an event held at temples across the town's temple district. To ask about seeing interiors or taking photographs inside, contact Chotokuji in advance (tel. 0254-22-6226).

Chotokuji is about a 20-minute walk from JR Shibata Station. The Niigata Prefecture tourism association also suggests the city loop bus, counterclockwise route, from Shibata Station to the Machi no Eki stop, about a 5-minute walk from the temple; check the timetable before you go. Drivers will find a car park for 15 vehicles, according to the temple.