Honganji Yokkaichi Betsuin

The Western Betsuin of Yokkaichi

Honganji Yokkaichi Betsuin is a branch temple of the Jodo Shinshu Honganji-ha school in Yokkaichi, Usa City, Oita Prefecture, where eleven buildings in the precinct, including a main hall built in 1859, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2016.

Its full name is Jodo Shinshu Honganji-ha Honganji Yokkaichi Betsuin (本願寺四日市別院). Locally it is the Nishi Betsuin, the western branch temple. Across a lane barely wide enough for two cars stands a second branch temple of comparable scale, belonging to the rival Otani-ha school and known as the Higashi Betsuin, the eastern one. Two large temple compounds of competing schools facing each other across a single street is a rare arrangement in Japan, and it is the reason the surrounding quarter grew as it did.

The story begins with a dispute in the middle of the Edo period. According to Usa City, the temple that stood on the eastern site, Shinshoji, belonged to the Higashi Honganji network, and a quarrel over whether its abbot should retire escalated when he attempted to move to the Honganji-ha school, taking eleven subordinate temples and 1300 parishioners with him. In 1743 the shogunate's commissioner of temples and shrines, Ooka Echizen-no-kami Tadasuke, ruled on the case: Shinshoji was confiscated and handed to Higashi Honganji. The Honganji-ha side answered by relocating Shomyoji, a temple in nearby Kawabe, to the present site and raising a branch temple of its own.

Exactly when that relocation matured into a full betsuin is not agreed among the public records consulted here. What is documented is the outcome. The two schools built and preached in competition, a temple town took shape along the lane between them, and both compounds came to be called the Kyushu Gobo, the seat that oversaw affiliated temples across the whole island. Pilgrims arrived from every corner of Kyushu, and Yokkaichi prospered on that traffic.

Walking the Precinct

Honganji Yokkaichi Betsuin faces east. Visitors pass first through the Second Gate at the head of the approach, then through the four-legged Main Gate, and the main hall comes into view at the far end, itself facing east. The east-west axis is dead straight, so from in front of the Second Gate all three structures line up one behind another.

Inside the gate, a bell tower stands at the southern end of the precinct frontage and a drum tower at the northern end, one answering the other. Framing a temple front with a bell on one side and a drum on the other is part of the standard Shinshu layout, but here the pair is deliberately unlike: the bell tower is timber with a flared skirt base, the drum tower a plaster-encased storehouse structure. Just north of the Main Gate, turned to face the main hall, is the tea hall.

South of the main hall a hexagonal sutra repository faces east, and in front of it, on the south side of the main hall's forecourt, the assembly hall faces north. Walk around to the north side and the sequence continues: the audience hall, the Onari Palace joined to its rear by a covered corridor, and beyond that the priests' quarters with the long palace attached. Circling the compound makes the underlying division legible. Worship happens on the axis and to the south; receiving, lodging and administration happen to the north.

The buildings sit close together, all eleven within a radius of roughly 100 metres. 30 minutes is enough to see everything without hurrying.

Eleven Buildings, Registered Together

Eleven buildings at Honganji Yokkaichi Betsuin carry the Registered Tangible Cultural Property listing, all of them entered on 25 February 2016. Their construction dates span about 300 years, from the middle of the Edo period to the early Showa era.

• Main Hall (1859)
• Main Gate (mid-Edo period)
• Second Gate (late Edo period)
• Bell Tower (late Edo period)
• Drum Tower (1847)
• Tea Hall (late Taisho era)
• Sutra Repository (1885)
• Assembly Hall (about 1915)
• Audience Hall (early Meiji era)
• Onari Palace (early Showa era)
• Priests' Quarters and Long Palace (Taisho era, extended in the early Showa era)

Only the main hall was registered under the criterion for work that sets a standard of design. The other ten were listed under the criterion for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The listing rewards the survival of a complete Shinshu branch-temple compound as much as the merit of any single structure in it.

Otorikoshi, Six Days in December

The largest observance of the year at Honganji Yokkaichi Betsuin runs from 11 to 16 December: the Hoonko Gohikiage-e, the memorial rite for Shinran, founder of the Jodo Shinshu teaching. In Yokkaichi both branch temples call it Otorikoshi. Usa City records that food stalls fill the precinct during those days and that crowds of worshippers come.

The assembly hall was built for precisely this rite. A compound that is quiet for most of the year fills once, and during those six days the scale and the placement of the buildings stop looking generous and start looking necessary.

Visiting Honganji Yokkaichi Betsuin

The precinct is open free of charge, and Usa City lists visiting hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Whether interiors can be entered or photographed depends on the schedule of services, so contact the temple in advance if you hope to see inside or want to set up a tripod. Walking the grounds and looking at the buildings from outside needs no arrangement.

The nearest station is Yanagigaura on the JR Nippo Line, about 15 minutes away by taxi. By car it is roughly 3 minutes from the Yokkaichi interchange on the Usa-Beppu Road. There is parking in the precinct, though Usa City directs coaches to the lots on the Higashi Betsuin side and in the temple town, where the public toilets are as well.

The lanes of the Yokkaichi temple town are narrow, and comparing the two compounds is easier on foot than from behind a windscreen. Hours, admission and festival dates are as confirmed on 13 September 2026 and are subject to change.