Kokokuji Temple

What Is Kokokuji Temple?

Kokokuji Temple (興国寺, Kōkoku-ji) is a Rinzai Zen temple in Monzen, Yura Town, Hidaka District, Wakayama Prefecture, which grew out of Saihoji, a temple founded in 1227; five of its buildings, the Dharma Hall, Zazen Hall, Founder's Hall, Abbot's Quarters and Great Gate, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 6, 2025. Its mountain name is Shuhozan, and it was long called the foremost Zen monastery south of the barrier (Kannan Daiichi Zenrin). Local people simply call it Kaisan, "the Founder."

The grounds sit in a fold of hills inland from the Yura coast and run long and narrow from south to north. At Kokokuji the main halls line up on a single axis, from the gate at the foot of the approach to the Founder's Hall at the very back.

From Saihoji to Kokokuji

The temple's story begins with the death of Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third Kamakura shogun. According to Wakayama Prefecture's Wakayama History Stories, his retainer Katsurayama Kagetomo was waiting in Hakata for a ship to Song China when news came of Sanetomo's assassination in 1219. He gave up the voyage, took the tonsure as the monk Gansho, and received the stewardship of Yura estate from Sanetomo's mother, Hojo Masako. In 1227 he built Saihoji here to pray for his lord.

Saihoji later invited the monk Kakushin, who had trained in Zen in Song China, as its founding abbot, and became a Rinzai temple. Kakushin is better known by his later title, National Master Hotto (Hottō Kokushi). The Yura Tourism Association says the temple received the name Kokokuji from Emperor Go-Murakami around 1340 and, at its height, headed 143 branch temples as the chief seat of the Hotto line. Kakushin is also said to have brought back the method for making Kinzanji miso, and soy sauce is said to have grown out of that process.

In 1585 Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of Kii burned most of the temple. The prefectural history page says the halls were rebuilt in 1601 under Asano Yoshinaga, lord of Kii. The national database, however, dates the present Dharma Hall to 1797, and the five registered buildings range from 1698 to 1938, which points to a temple rebuilt in stages over the Edo period.

A legend holds that a great tengu from Mount Akagi rebuilt the burned halls in a single night. The Tengu Hall on the grounds keeps a tengu mask 2.4 meters long and 2.7 meters wide, offered in thanks.

The Five Registered Buildings

All five buildings at Kokokuji were registered on the same day, August 6, 2025, under consecutive numbers 30-0406 to 30-0410. They are the only registered buildings on Yura Town's list of its cultural properties, which makes Kokokuji the town's first.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives these dates and registration criteria:

• Dharma Hall: 1797; a model of architectural form
• Zazen Hall: late Edo period, enlarged at the end of the Edo period, renovated 1984; contributes to the historic landscape
• Founder's Hall: around 1823; a model of architectural form
• Abbot's Quarters: 1698, enlarged 1838; a model of architectural form
• Great Gate: 1938, moved to its present site in 1997; a model of architectural form

The Agency's recommendation describes the layout itself: the Zazen Hall and Founder's Hall on the central axis north of the Dharma Hall, the Abbot's Quarters to the east, and the Great Gate at the entrance to the approach. Each building is registered on its own, but together they preserve the axial plan typical of a Zen monastery.

Walking the Grounds

At Kokokuji the first building you reach is the Great Gate, facing south at the entrance to the approach. It is a four-legged gate built entirely of zelkova, moved in 1997 from a site about 400 meters to the south.

About 250 meters up the approach, the Dharma Hall faces south at the center of the grounds, its two-tiered roof with curved and triangular gables filling the view. North of it stands the Zazen Hall, also facing south, and on higher ground beyond is the Founder's Hall, reached by a covered stairway rising from behind the Zazen Hall.

The Abbot's Quarters stands east of the Dharma Hall, facing west beside the priests' kitchen. From the front of the Dharma Hall, look to your right to see its curved-gable entrance porch.

A good route is to walk north from the gate to the front of the Dharma Hall, look east to the Abbot's Quarters, then pass beside the Dharma Hall to the Zazen Hall and climb to the Founder's Hall. The Tengu Hall is also on the grounds.

Visiting and Getting There

The grounds of Kokokuji are open to walk freely. The prefectural history page lists the hours as sunrise to sunset with no charge for the grounds, and all five buildings can be seen from outside. There is no published notice that the interiors are regularly open, so if you hope to go inside or take photographs indoors, contact the temple in advance (tel. 0738-65-0154).

Two events draw crowds: the Tengu Festival on Coming of Age Day in January, and the lantern-burning fire festival on August 15 during Obon, which Wakayama Prefecture recognizes as intangible folk culture.

The nearest station is Kii-Yura on the JR Kinokuni Line. The Yura Tourism Association and the prefecture's official tourism site put the temple about 1.1 kilometers from the station, roughly 15 minutes on foot. By car, the prefectural history page gives about 15 minutes from the Hirogawa interchange on the Yuasa-Gobo Road. The tourism association lists parking for about 10 cars.