A Gilded Shrine for the Medicine Buddha at Yusan-ji
The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists a single object at Yusan-ji as an Important Cultural Property: a gilded wooden zushi, designated on 17 September 1954. A zushi is a small cabinet-shaped shrine built to hold a Buddhist image, and this one was made to enclose the temple's principal icon, a figure of Yakushi Nyorai, the Medicine Buddha.
It sits inside the Yakushi hall, the worship building that crowns a wooded slope above the temple's lower precinct in Fukuroi, Shizuoka Prefecture. The shrine is roughly the size of a small room rather than a piece of furniture, with gold leaf across its surfaces and a tiled-looking roof carried on wooden brackets. Visitors who climb the cedar-lined steps to the hall find it set deep in the dim interior, its golden doors closed.
What the Designation Recognizes
The official record describes the shrine as one bay wide and two bays deep, with the front bay left open so the image can be approached. The roof is built in the irimoya form, a hipped-and-gabled profile, and is entered from the gable end rather than the long side. Instead of clay tiles, the roof uses wooden boards cut and laid to imitate a tiled surface, a technique called hongawara-gata itabuki, and the eaves are doubled.
The bracketing follows the older Japanese wayō manner, with three-stepped bracket complexes supporting the eaves. In the spaces between the brackets, the lower level carries frog-leg struts, while the upper level uses a different strut form above them. Prefectural surveyors single out the molded profiles cut at the base of the tail rafters as an archaic detail, a feature that points to an earlier carpentry tradition. The shrine is small, but its framing is precise and structurally sound.
Dating it has not been simple. The national database places the shrine at around Tenshō 16, or 1588, in the Momoyama period. That figure comes from an ink inscription once found on the old doors recording repairs to metal fittings in 1588. Reading the date as a repair rather than the original construction, prefectural researchers argue the shrine itself may be older, made late in the Muromachi period before the Tenshō years. Later repairs followed in the Kansei era and the Meiji period, and in 1968 the shrine was partly dismantled and rebuilt to recover its original appearance.
Temple tradition adds a name to the story. One account holds that the family of Imagawa Yoshimoto, the warlord killed at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, gave the shrine to honor his memory; another says it was brought from elsewhere. Neither line can be confirmed from documents, and the temple presents both as inherited lore rather than settled fact.
What to Look For When You Visit
The figure of Yakushi Nyorai sealed inside the shrine is a hibutsu, a hidden image, and its gilded doors are opened only once in a century. Most visitors will never see the Buddha itself. The shrine that holds it, however, is the object the nation chose to protect, and reading its brackets and roofline rewards a slow look from the worship floor.
Yakushi Nyorai is the Buddha of healing, usually shown holding a medicine jar, and at Yusan-ji that role carries unusual weight. The temple is known across Japan as a place of prayer for the eyes. By legend, Empress Kōken bathed her ailing eyes in water from the temple's Ruri waterfall in 749 and recovered, after which the court named Yusan-ji an imperial prayer temple. Pilgrims with eye trouble still come, and the waterfall remains a site of ascetic practice.
Reaching the hall takes effort, which is part of the experience. From the lower temple buildings the path climbs for about ten minutes through dense cedar, past a cutting, a stream, and the waterfall, with mossy stone steps underfoot. The grounds turn brilliant in late autumn, and the climb is at its best when the maples color.
The same slope holds two more nationally designated buildings. A three-storied pagoda, counted among a celebrated trio of Momoyama-period pagodas and standing about 23 meters tall, was rebuilt here after a fire in 1572 and shelters a secret image of Dainichi Nyorai. At the entrance, the temple gate began life as a gate of nearby Kakegawa Castle, built in 1659 and moved to Yusan-ji in 1873 when the castle was dismantled.
Around Yusan-ji
Yusan-ji belongs to the Shingon school and forms one of the Enshū Sanzan, a set of three mountain temples in the Fukuroi area that also includes Hattasan Son'ei-ji and Kasuisai. Pilgrims and day-trippers often pair two of them in a single outing.
The temple lies in the hills roughly six kilometers north of Fukuroi Station on the JR Tōkaidō Main Line; a taxi from the station takes about fifteen minutes, and drivers reach it in around fifteen minutes from the Fukuroi interchange. The lower precinct, where the abbot's quarters and study halls display temple treasures, charges a viewing fee, while the grounds themselves are free to walk. Because hours and the climb to the upper hall can vary with season and weather, it helps to confirm details with the temple before a visit.
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Q&A
- Can I see the shrine and the Buddha inside it?
- The Buddha sealed within is a hidden image whose doors open only once a century, so the figure itself is almost never on view. The gilded shrine that holds it stands in the Yakushi hall up the hillside. Access to hall interiors can change with the season, so check with the temple in advance.
- How old is the shrine, and who built it?
- The national database dates it to about 1588, in the Momoyama period, based on a repair inscription once on the doors. Some researchers think the structure is older, from the late Muromachi period. Temple tradition links it to the family of the warlord Imagawa Yoshimoto, though this cannot be confirmed.
- Why is the temple associated with the eyes?
- The principal image is Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing. A legend tells that Empress Kōken washed her ailing eyes in the temple's Ruri waterfall in 749 and was cured, and Yusan-ji has drawn prayers for eye health ever since.
- How do I get there?
- The temple is about six kilometers north of Fukuroi Station on the JR Tōkaidō Main Line, roughly fifteen minutes by taxi or car. From the lower buildings, the Yakushi hall is a ten-minute walk up forested stone steps.
- What else is worth seeing on the grounds?
- Two other nationally designated structures share the site: a Momoyama-period three-storied pagoda and a temple gate moved from Kakegawa Castle. The Ruri waterfall and the autumn maples are also draws, and the nearby temples of the Enshū Sanzan make for an easy pairing.
Basic Information
| Name | Yusan-ji Hondō-nai Zushi (miniature shrine in the main hall of Yusan-ji) |
|---|---|
| Location | Muramatsu, Fukuroi City, Shizuoka Prefecture |
| Owner | Yusan-ji |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (building), designated 17 September 1954 |
| Count | 1 shrine |
| Period | Momoyama period, around 1588 (Tenshō 16); possibly late Muromachi |
| Form | One-bay zushi, hip-and-gable (irimoya) roof, gable entry, board roof imitating tiles (hongawara-gata itabuki) |
| Enshrined image | Yakushi Nyorai (a hidden image opened once a century) |
| Access | About 15 minutes by taxi or car from Fukuroi Station (JR Tōkaidō Main Line); the main hall is a 10-minute uphill walk from the lower precinct |
| Viewing | A fee applies to the lower halls displaying temple treasures; grounds free. Confirm hours and hall access with the temple. |
References
- Cultural Heritage Online (National Institutes for Cultural Heritage): Yusan-ji Hondo-nai Zushi
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/122167
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/1157
- Shizuoka Bunkazai Navi (Shizuoka Prefecture): Yusan-ji Hondo-nai Zushi
- https://www.pref.shizuoka.jp/kankosports/bunkageijutsu/bunkazai/1002825/1041003/1041889/1004977/1021200.html
- Yusan-ji official website: Cultural Properties
- https://yusanji.jp/bunkazai/
- Fukuroi City: Iōzan Yusan-ji
- https://www.city.fukuroi.shizuoka.jp/soshiki/syougyou/1/tera_jinja/11052.html
Last verified: 2026.06.03