Hida Kokubun-ji
Hida Kokubun-ji is a Buddhist temple in the Sowamachi area of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It belongs to the Kōyasan Shingon-school and houses a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the Medicine Buddha. It is one of the few surviving provincial temples (kokubunji) that Emperor Shōmu ordered built in the Nara period (710–794 to promote Buddhism).
The temple grounds contain the foundation stones of a Nara-period seven-story pagoda. These stones were made a National Historic Site in 1929. The central stone of the old pagoda sits to the east of the main hall and is no longer in its original place; it is kept as a Takayama City Historic Site.
Historical records say that in 741, after a smallpox outbreak, Emperor Shōmu ordered a monastery and a nunnery in every province. Hida Kokubun-ji is thought to have been founded around 757, about 15 years after that order. Some legends claim Gyōki the monk founded it, but there is little evidence for this. The original temple burned down in 819 and was rebuilt in 855.
The present main hall (Hondō) dates from the Muromachi period and is designated a National Important Cultural Property. The Nara-period pagoda burned down several times: it was rebuilt in 1585, then damaged in local conflicts and replaced by a three-story pagoda in 1615, which burned in 1791 and was rebuilt in 1820.
In 1695, after Takayama Castle was destroyed, the temple inherited some structures including the main gate. The Hida Kokubun-niji, the provincial nun temple, was located where the Tsujigamori Sansha shrine now stands, about 900 meters west of Hida Kokubun-ji. During renovations of that shrine in 1988, foundation stones of the Kokubun-niji Kondō were found, and the site is now a Takayama City Historic Site.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:15 (CET).