is a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

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 ...

Buzan Sect located in Yamakura, Katori,

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

. The temple is one of two temples in Katori with the same name, the other being Makinosan Kanpuku-ji.

History

Kanpuku-ji was, by legend, founded b a priest named Enton in 811. The famed

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon sec ...

(774 – 835), the founder of Shingon Buddhism, visited the region in 814AD and found that residents of the area were suffering from infectious diseases. Kūkai fasted and prayed to and the . The residents offered Kūkai

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

from the nearby Kuri River and were suddenly cured.第45番霊場山倉山観福寺
The festival of the temple, held on 7 October annually, includes the offering of a raw salmon during a Buddhist service. The temple obtained the right to use the imperial Chrysanthemum crest from Emperor Saga (786-842), and for its priests to wear purple robes as a mark of its status. Through most of its history, under the ''

Shinbutsu-shūgō ''Shinbutsu-shūgō'' (, "syncretism of kami and buddhas"), also called Shinbutsu shū (, "god buddha school") Shinbutsu-konkō (, "jumbling up" or "contamination of kami and buddhas"), is the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism that was Japan's o ...

'' philosophy, Kanpuku-ji served as an auxiliary temple to the nearby Yamakura Shrine. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. In 1871, under the ''

shinbutsu bunri The Japanese term indicates the separation of Shinto from Buddhism, introduced after the Meiji Restoration which separated Shinto ''kami'' from buddhas, and also Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, which were originally amalgamated. It is a ...

'' movement, temples and shrines were formally separated. Buddhist objects were removed from the Yamakura Shrine and installed in Kanpuku-ji, a process that lasted into the early 20th century.

Structures

* Mizuya, a roofed area with a water basin for hand washing *Kyakuden, reception hall * Kuri, monks' quarters *Kōdō, lecture hall *Nyōkyōsho, a place of offering of a Buddhist

sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...

Order in Buddhist pilgrimage

Kanpuku-ji is the 45th temple in the Kantō Hachijūhachikasho, a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

circuit of 88 Buddhist temples in the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

of eastern Japan visited by, or associated with

.真言宗醍醐派大日山神崎寺
/ref>

Transportation

Kanpuku-ji is located approximately east of

Narita International Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport ...

, but is not easily accessible by public transportation. It can be reached by bus from

Sawara Station is a passenger railway station in the city of Katori, Chiba Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Sawara Station is served by the Narita Line, and is located 40.0 kilometers from the terminus of line at Sakura Stat ...

or Omigawa Station on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Narita Line The Narita Line ( ja, 成田線, ) is the name for a combination of three railway lines located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The main line connects Sakura Station and Matsugishi Station (as ...

External links

第45番霊場山倉山観福寺山倉大神　本殿（香取市

References