Gokurakuji Temple

About Gokurakuji Temple in Kashiwazaki

Gokurakuji Temple (極楽寺, also written Gokuraku-ji) is a Jodo Buddhist temple in Wakabacho, Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture, where six Edo-period structures, led by a main hall built in 1758, were listed together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2011. Its full formal title adds the mountain name Hōkyōzan and the cloister name An'yōin.

The name Gokurakuji, meaning "Temple of Paradise", is shared by many temples across Japan, including a well-known one in Kamakura. This page covers the Jodo-sect Gokurakuji Temple in Kashiwazaki, on the Sea of Japan coast of Niigata.

The six registered structures are the main hall, the shoin reception wing, the priests' quarters, the sutra repository, the bell tower and the main gate. They carry consecutive registration numbers, 15-0355 to 15-0360, and all six were repaired in 2010 before being registered on October 28, 2011, under the Registered Tangible Cultural Property system. Each was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country.

How Gokurakuji Temple Took Shape

The registration records of the Agency for Cultural Affairs let you trace the growth of the Gokurakuji Temple precinct across roughly a century. The main hall came first, in 1758; it was enlarged in 1809 and repaired again in 1918.

The sutra repository followed in 1827 and was reworked in 1860. The priests' quarters and the main gate are dated to the later Edo period, while the shoin and the bell tower belong to its final decades, just before the Meiji era.

The sources checked for this page, from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Kashiwazaki City and the Jodo school, do not record when the temple itself was founded, so that question is left open here.

Teishin-ni and the Abbot Joyo

Gokurakuji Temple is closely tied to Teishin-ni (貞心尼), a Buddhist nun and poet remembered as the last disciple of the Zen monk and poet Ryōkan. According to Kashiwazaki City, she was born in 1798 into a samurai family of the Nagaoka domain, took vows in Kashiwazaki at 23, and died in 1872 at the age of 75.

After Ryōkan's death she kept up a wide circle of friendships through poetry, and the city names Joyo, abbot of Gokurakuji, among the people closest to her. The Kashiwazaki Tourism Association adds that Joyo, the 28th abbot, supported her in many ways while she lived at her hermitage, Fuguan.

That friendship explains what the temple still keeps: a poetry collection in Teishin-ni's hand, letters she wrote to the abbot, and a portrait he painted of her during her final illness.

Gokurakuji Temple also owns a pair of hanging scrolls depicting the Contemplation Sutra mandala and the death of the Buddha, and a single handscroll of a Buddhist sutra text (極楽寺十住断結経巻第三童真品第八). Kashiwazaki City placed both on its list of municipal cultural properties in 1973.

Layout of the Gokurakuji Temple Grounds

At Gokurakuji Temple the main hall faces east, and the priests' quarters stand just to its north, also facing east. The shoin links the back (west side) of the priests' quarters with the main hall, so these 3 buildings form one connected block.

Further north is the sutra repository, with the bell tower to its east, and the main gate marks the northern edge of the grounds. All six registered structures lie within about 80 metres of one another, from the main hall in the south to the gate in the north.

A natural route starts on the east side facing the main hall, continues north past the gable end of the priests' quarters, and finishes at the sutra repository, the bell tower and the gate.

Getting to Gokurakuji Temple and Visiting

The nearest station is Kashiwazaki on the JR Shin'etsu Main Line and Echigo Line. The Kashiwazaki Tourism Association puts Gokurakuji Temple about 1.1 km from the station's south exit, roughly a 15-minute walk.

The tourism association asks anyone who wishes to visit Gokurakuji Temple to contact the temple beforehand (0257-23-2233, Japanese). No published information on admission fees or photography was found, so it is worth raising both questions when you call.

Teishin-ni's grave lies at Doun-ji, about 200 metres south of Gokurakuji Temple.