Toshoji Temple

A Zen Monastery That Kept Its Plan

Toshoji Temple (洞松寺, also written Tōshō-ji) is a Soto Zen monastery in the Funakidani valley of Yokotani, Yakage, Okayama Prefecture, revived as a Zen temple by the monk Kisan Shosan in 1412; nine buildings and one stone structure in its precinct, led by a main hall built in 1697, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on July 25, 2011. Its mountain name is Funakisan.

Temple tradition pushes the founding much further back, to a visit by Emperor Tenji in the 7th century, when an image linked to Kofukuji in Nara was said to have been enshrined here under the Hosso school. That story belongs to the temple's own lore. The documented history starts in the Muromachi period.

Kisan Shosan, a monk from Shinano, rebuilt the temple as a Soto Zen house in 1412 with the backing of the Sho family, lords of Sarukake Castle in Bitchu Province. He installed his own teacher, Jochu Tengin, as honorary founder and took the second abbacy for himself. According to the Yakage Board of Education, Toshoji then drew patronage from the Sho and later the Mori, and at its peak headed a network of some 1,200 branch temples across the region. Forty-three letters and deeds sent to the temple by the Sho clan and its retainers survive as the Toshoji Documents, designated by Okayama Prefecture in 2004.

Toshoji is a working monastery first and a sightseeing stop second. In 2014 the Soto school opened a specialist training hall here for monks and nuns of non-Japanese nationality, and visitors often pass robed practitioners from abroad sweeping paths or carrying water.

Walking the Axis, from the Second Gate to the Founder's Hall

The monastery sits at the head of a narrow valley running north to south, and its buildings line up almost on a single axis. Walking up the approach, you meet the Second Gate first, a small tiled gateway about 250 meters short of the main gate. Just before the precinct a stone-lined channel crosses the path from east to west; a low granite bridge carries you over it, and the two-story Sanmon rises directly ahead.

The Sanmon was rebuilt in 1839 and is the largest temple gate in Yakage; the town protects it as a municipal cultural property. It is the only building in the precinct left out of the national registration. White plastered walls run off to either side of it.

Beyond the gate, at the far end of the precinct, the Main Hall faces north. Behind it a small tablet hall links to the Founder's Hall, so gate, hall and founder's shrine share one line. To the east, the Zen Hall and Guest Monks' Quarters run north to south, joined to the Main Hall by the Bell Tower; north of them, the abbot's former residence, Getsusen-in, stands in its own walled enclosure. To the west, the Abbot's Quarters and Shoin connect to the Priests' Quarters, which face the Zen Hall across the courtyard.

That face-off between meditation hall and kitchen block is one of the oldest conventions in Zen temple planning, and here it survives in Edo-period timber. The registered structures span roughly 200 years, from the Main Hall of 1697 through the Zen Hall and Bell Tower of 1838 to the Meiji-era residence, walls and stone channel.

The Nine Buildings and One Structure on the National Register

All of Toshoji's buildings were entered on the national register together on July 25, 2011, under consecutive registration numbers 33-0240 to 33-0249. Each was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country.

• Main Hall (1697)
• Founder's Hall and Memorial Tablet Hall (Kyoho era)
• Abbot's Quarters and Shoin (1753)
• Priests' Quarters (1752)
• Zen Hall and Guest Monks' Quarters (1838)
• Bell Tower (1838)
• Shoin Getsusen-in (early Meiji period)
• Gate and Earthen Walls (early Meiji period)
• Waterway Stone Walls and Stone Bridge (late Meiji period)
• Second Gate (late Edo period)

Taken one at a time, these are the buildings of a provincial Zen temple. What earned the listing is the set: every structure a Soto monastery needs, assembled step by step from the mid-Edo period into Meiji, still standing in its original arrangement. The town of Yakage also protects the whole precinct as a municipal cultural property, a status it gained in 2004, and the two portrait sculptures of Kisan Shosan and Jochu Tengin in the Founder's Hall are designated by Okayama Prefecture.

Visiting and Getting There

Toshoji remains an active training monastery. Neither the temple nor the Soto school publishes admission fees or set opening hours for the grounds, and most buildings are living and practice spaces, so expect to see them from the outside. If you hope to look inside a hall or join a sitting, contact the temple in advance by phone at 0866-82-0087.

The Soto school's temple directory says foreign visitors can join zazen in English at any time of year, free of charge, in the morning sitting from 4:10 to 6:10 a.m. and the evening sitting from 7:10 to 9 p.m., and that overnight stays can be arranged. Public sittings are held as well; in January 2024 the Main Hall hosted a zazen event run jointly with Daihonzan Sojiji, one of the school's two head temples.

No official guidance on photography could be found. Keep cameras away from monks during zazen or work periods, and ask before photographing buildings.

By rail, take the JR Hakubi Line from Okayama to Soja, change to the Ibara Railway, and get off at Mitani Station, about a 30-minute walk from the temple. A taxi from Shin-Kurashiki Station on the Sanyo Shinkansen takes about 20 minutes. Drivers can use the temple's free general parking lot.