Gokokuji Temple (Shimonoseki)

Gokokuji Temple in Shimonoseki

Gokokuji Temple (護國寺, also written Gokoku-ji) in Kamitanaka-machi, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a temple of the Nichiren school of Buddhism that grew out of a hermitage in 1876; four of its structures, the main hall, the Seishoko Hall, the ossuary and the gate pillars, are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Gokokuji). The main hall was registered on March 18, 2003, and the other three on December 24, 2013.

According to the temple’s own history, Gokokuji was founded by Tamae Rihei, a soy sauce maker from Nishinohashi-machi. His shop name was Kanetama, and older parishioners still call the temple “Kanetama-san”. Rihei handed the business to an adopted heir, built a hermitage on the present site, and in 1876 began the formalities for its recognition as a Nichiren temple.

The temple name was approved on April 19, 1880, with the priest Nittai of Tanjoji, a head temple of the school, installed as founding abbot. Rihei himself was ordained in 1881 under the name Nichijo and paid for the first main hall and priests’ quarters (Gokokuji).

How the Precinct Took Shape

The buildings now standing at Gokokuji were added one by one between the late Meiji and early Showa periods: the Seishoko Hall in 1897 (the temple’s history gives 1898), the gate pillars in 1906 and the ossuary in 1921, followed, under the fifth chief priest Nishijima Bunmei, by the present main hall in 1929 and new priests’ quarters in 1931 (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Gokokuji). The temple puts the grounds at about 2,000 square metres.

On August 2, 1945, a sea mine dropped to blockade the Kanmon Straits exploded on land in nearby Kifune-cho. The blast tore the covering from the main hall roof and scattered the tiles of the priests’ quarters. Air raids that year burned 11 temples in the surrounding area, but Gokokuji escaped the fires (Gokokuji).

The Four Structures and How to Walk Them

The four listed structures of Gokokuji stand at the foot of the hill behind the town (Agency for Cultural Affairs). At the top of the stone steps of the approach, a pair of granite gate pillars of 1906 marks the east front of the precinct. Beyond them, facing east, is the main hall of 1929, easy to pick out by its copper-clad hip-and-gable roof and the cusped karahafu gable over its entrance.

South of the main hall, also facing east, is the small Seishoko Hall, which enshrines a statue of the warlord Kato Kiyomasa. Further south, the reinforced-concrete ossuary carries a cylindrical copper memorial tower (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Pass through the gate pillars to face the main hall, then turn south to the Seishoko Hall and the ossuary, and you have seen all four.

Each structure is described on its own page.

Visiting

Gokokuji lies in the city about 2.4 kilometres northeast of JR Shimonoseki Station in a straight line. The temple’s address is 2-11-10 Kamitanaka-machi, and its telephone number is 083-222-5789 (Gokokuji). No official information from the temple or from Shimonoseki City on opening hours or admission was found.

Gokokuji is a working temple where services for its parishioners are held, so if you hope to go inside a building or take photographs, contact the temple beforehand.