is a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temple of the

Shingon file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...

sect located in

Ōsu is a popular area located in the Naka ward of Nagoya, central Japan. Ōsu is a historic area which has many small shops offering everything from Japanese traditional food to handicrafts. A large department store is OSU301. It is popular amon ...

, in central

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It belongs to the

Owari Thirty-three Kannon The are a collection of Buddhist temples in western Aichi Prefecture, Japan, all dedicated to the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Kannon). The name is derived from Owari Province, the former name for the area. The list was created in 1955. ...

History

The official name is ''Kitanosan Shinpuku-ji Hōshō-in'', but is popularly known as ''Ōsu Kannon''. The tempe was originally built in about the year 1333 in Ōsu-gō, Nagaoka village, in

Owari Province was a province of Japan in the area that today forms the western half of Aichi Prefecture, including the modern city of Nagoya. The province was created in 646. Owari bordered on Mikawa, Mino, and Ise Provinces. Owari and Mino provinces were ...

, which is currently known as the city of Hashima in

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

. Construction was sponsored by the

Emperor Go-Daigo Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 ''Go-Daigo-tennō'') (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')後醍醐天皇 (96) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional order ...

, who appointed Shōnin Nōshin as the first head priest. Nōshin had a dream of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion, known as

Kannon Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...

in Japanese. Hence, the name Ōsu (from Ōsu-gō) Kannon. Due to repeated flooding, the temple was moved to its present location in 1612 by

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

. In the 1820s, large parts of the temple were destroyed by fire, but it was rebuilt in the 1970s. The main hall has a very large, red

paper lantern A paper lantern is a lantern made of thin, brightly colored paper. Paper lanterns come in various shapes and sizes, as well as various methods of construction. In their simplest form, they are simply a paper bag with a candle placed inside, alt ...

hanging from the ceiling where worshipers can tie small paper notes with wishes to the holding wires.

Library

The current temple is home to a large collection of books. It houses about 15,000 classic Japanese and Chinese works. ''

The Records of Ancient Matters The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Imperial House of ...

'' (古事記 ''Kojiki''), a ''Shinpukuji'' manuscript (真福寺本) transcribed by the monk Ken'yu (賢瑜) is the oldest extant manuscript of the ''Kojiki'' and consists of three books that were written in 1371–1372 during the

Nanboku-chō period The Nanboku-chō period (南北朝時代, ''Nanboku-chō jidai'', "North and South court period", also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period), spanning from 1336 to 1392, was a period that occurred during the formative years of the Mur ...

. It describes the ancient mythological history of Japan. The library also has many other books designated as national treasures and important cultural properties.

Market

A street fair is held on the 18th day of each month. A number of antiques are sold there. The nearest subway is Ōsu Kannon Station.

History

Library

Market

See also

References

Sources

External links