Kongoji Temple (Takahata Fudoson)

Kongoji Temple (Takahata Fudoson)

Kongoji Temple (金剛寺) in Takahata, Hino City, Tokyo, is a head temple of the Chisan school of Shingon Buddhism whose Fudo Hall of 1342 and late Muromachi Niomon Gate were designated as an Important Cultural Property on November 29, 1946 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is known as Takahata Fudoson and counted among the three great Fudo temples of the Kanto region (Kongoji). That date is the date of designation under the former law.

According to the temple, it began when the monk Ennin built a Fudo hall on the hillside in the early Heian period; after a gale in 1335 brought the hall down, the resident monk Gikai rebuilt it at the foot of the hill in 1342, and that is the present Fudo Hall.

The Two Buildings

The Fudo Hall is five bays square, with a hip-and-gable roof of copper sheet in the form of thatch and a one-bay porch, and is designated together with the halo of its Fudo Myoo statue, three ridge tablets and a fund-raising scroll (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The temple describes it as the oldest cultural property building in Tokyo.

The Niomon Gate, built after the Fudo Hall, is a three-bay, single-passage two-storey gate that was restored to its two-storey form in a dismantling repair in 1959 (Kongoji). It houses guardian kings of the Muromachi period, and a plaque reading Takahatasan in the hand of the early Edo monk Unpyo hangs on its upper storey. Each building is described on its own page.

Visiting

According to the temple, it is a 5-minute walk from Takahatafudo Station on the Keio Line and the Tama Monorail. The Okuden hall in the grounds stores and displays cultural properties including the large Fudo triad, and is closed on Mondays. No official information on visiting hours for the grounds was found.