A Buddhist Hall Named After a Chinese Demon-Queller
Jizoji Shokido, the Shoki Hall of Jizoji Temple (地蔵寺, also written Jizō-ji) in the Shimizu district of Kawachinagano City, Osaka Prefecture, was built in 1935 and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on 7 August 2023. It adjoins the north side of the temple's main hall, on a ridge above the Amami River in the southern hills of the city.
Shoki is not a Buddhist figure. He is Zhong Kui, a deity absorbed into Japan from Chinese Daoist folklore: a bearded official in Tang court dress, sword drawn, glaring down whatever approaches. In Japan he acquired a reputation for warding off smallpox and for helping with study, and his image was hung at the Boys' Day festival, painted on banners and screens, and set in ceramic on rooftops. In Kyoto the small roof-ridge Shoki figures are still a familiar sight to anyone who looks up while walking the back streets.
A hall dedicated to him inside a Shingon temple precinct is, therefore, already unusual. The reason it exists here has to do with mothballs.
The Camphor Trademark That Paid for the Building
Fujisawa Shoten, the Osaka pharmaceutical house founded by Fujisawa Tomokichi in the 1890s, launched a camphor mothball product in 1897 and adopted Shoki as its trademark. The choice made commercial sense: a product that repels insects, sold under the sign of a deity who repels demons. The company was incorporated as Fujisawa Tomokichi Shoten in 1930, renamed Fujisawa Pharmaceutical in 1943, and eventually merged into Astellas Pharma in 2005.
Sources differ slightly on who made the donation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the hall as a gift from Fujisawa Tomokichi Shoten, the firm of the Shoki trademark. Kawachinagano City's own account attributes it to the wife of the company's first president. What both agree on is the link between the trademark and the hall's dedication, which is what gives this small building its subject.
Construction in 1935 places it squarely in the company's interwar peak. It was registered under number 27-0894, in the same 105th round of registrations that covered the temple's main hall, kuri and gate, and like three of those four it was listed as a structure contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.
Small, Careful, and Half Modern
The hall is a single-storey timber building of about 40 square metres, roofed in sangawara pantiles. The roof form is irimoya-zukuri, hipped above and gabled below, and the building is entered on the gable end rather than the long side. That orientation, called tsumairi, gives it a compact, forward-facing presence quite different from the broad main hall beside it.
Across the front runs a nureen, an open veranda left exposed to the weather with no outer shutters to protect it. In the flanking bays are katomado, the cusped windows with a bell-shaped arch that entered Japanese architecture with Zen temple design and later spread well beyond it. Inside, a space three bays square is floored with tatami and ceiled with a coffered grid, and a butsudan altar stands at the far end.
Then a detail that gives the date away. The kamebara, the rounded plinth that normally supports a hall in plaster over an earthen core, is made of concrete. A carpenter in 1935 was working with a material his predecessors did not have, and he used it exactly where it would be least visible and most useful.
Seen from the precinct, the Shoki Hall's tiled roof runs on into the roof of the main hall, and the two together with the kuri and the gate compose the layered roofscape that the registration citation singles out. The grounds, about 4,500 square metres, have been an Osaka Prefecture Place of Scenic Beauty since 7 December 1970, a designation earned largely by the call of the lesser cuckoo in early summer.
Access is a walk of roughly one kilometre southwest, about fifteen minutes, from Chihayaguchi Station on the Nankai Koya Line. Kawachinagano City states that the temple is not open to the general public, so the interior of the Shoki Hall cannot be viewed casually. Osaka Prefecture gives the temple itself as the contact for visits, on 0721-68-8033; enquiries about photography are best made at the same time.
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Q&A
- Who is Shoki, and why does Jizoji Shokido carry his name?
- Shoki is Zhong Kui, a demon-quelling deity from Chinese Daoist folklore, popular in Japan as a guard against disease. The hall's name reflects its donor: the Osaka firm Fujisawa Tomokichi Shoten used Shoki as the trademark of its camphor mothball products.
- When was Jizoji Shokido built and how large is it?
- It was built in 1935. It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of about 40 square metres, making it the smallest of the four registered halls and structures at Jizoji.
- Where does Jizoji Shokido stand within the temple precinct?
- It is attached to the north side of the main hall, so the two roofs read as a continuous run of tile when seen from the grounds.
- Can visitors see the inside of Jizoji Shokido?
- Not as a matter of course. Kawachinagano City states that Jizoji is not open to the general public. Contact the temple in advance on 0721-68-8033, the number Osaka Prefecture lists for enquiries, and ask about photography then.
- How do I get to Jizoji Shokido?
- Take the Nankai Koya Line to Chihayaguchi Station; the temple is about one kilometre to the southwest, a walk of roughly fifteen minutes.
Basic Information
| Name | Jizoji Shokido (地蔵寺鍾馗堂), Shoki Hall of Jizoji Temple |
|---|---|
| Location | 111-ko and others, Shimizu, Kawachinagano City, Osaka Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 27-0894 |
| Year Designated | Registered 7 August 2023 (105th round of registrations) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber structure, tiled roof, building area approx. 40 m² |
| Owner | Jizoji (religious corporation) |
| Public Access | Not open to the general public. Enquiries to the temple, 0721-68-8033. Nankai Koya Line, Chihayaguchi Station, approx. 1 km southwest |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Jizoji Shokido
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014650
- Kawachinagano City: Jizoji Shokido, Nationally Registered Cultural Property
- https://www.city.kawachinagano.lg.jp/site/history/89477.html
- Kawachinagano City: Jizoji, Osaka Prefecture-designated Place of Scenic Beauty
- https://www.city.kawachinagano.lg.jp/site/history/5672.html
- Osaka Prefecture: Jizoji, Prefecturally Designated Place of Scenic Beauty
- https://www.pref.osaka.lg.jp/o180150/bunkazaihogo/bunkazai/jizouji.html
Last verified: 2026.08.05