is a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

temple of the

Shingon is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...

sect located in

Ōsu is an area located in the Naka-ku, Nagoya, 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 pop ...

, in central

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It belongs to the Owari Thirty-three Kannon. Its address is 愛知県名古屋市中区大須2-21-47 (Aichi Ken, Nagoya-shi, Naka-ku Osu, 2-21-47).

History

The official name is ''Kitanosan Shinpuku-ji Hōshō-in'', but is popularly known as ''Ōsu Kannon''. The temple 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 w ...

, which is currently known as the city of Hashima in

Gifu Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,910,511 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture ...

. Construction was sponsored by the Emperor Go-Daigo, 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 common Chinese name of the bodhisattva associated with Karuṇā, compassion known as Avalokiteśvara (). Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means " he One WhoPerceives the Sounds of the World". Originally regarded as m ...

in Japanese. Hence, the name Ōsu (from Ōsu-gō) Kannon. In the 3rd year of Genko (1333), a monk named Noshin founded the Shinpukuji Temple and its sub-temple Hojoin, which marked the beginning of this temple. They moved the Kannon statue from Shitennoji Temple in Settsu Province (modern-day

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

) and enshrined it as the principal deity. Under the third chief priest, Prince Ninyo, the temple's estate grew to 10,000

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

(a unit of measure for rice fields), and it became an overseeing temple for Shingon sect temples in six provinces: Ise, Mino, Owari, Mikawa, Totomi, and Shinano. During the Sengoku (Warring States) Period,

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

granted the temple an additional 500 koku of land. In the 17th year of Keicho (1612), on the orders of

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

, Hojoin, along with its main deity and the Shinpukuji library, was relocated from Osu-go to its current site by Naruse Masanari, the lord of Inuyama Castle. In the 12th year of Bunka (1815), a five-story pagoda was erected, and a statue of Aizen Myoo carved by Kukai was enshrined within. On March 21, 1892 ( Meiji 25), the main hall, five-story pagoda, and Niomon gate were destroyed by the fire that broke out behind the temple's Hoza theater (Osu's Great Fire). An account titled "Reconstruction Contribution Ledger" was written in April of the same year to raise funds for their reconstruction. The ledger contained drawings of the temple's layout for the main hall, five-story pagoda, and Niomon gate, detailing the reconstruction plans for these structures across five sections. While the main hall and Niomon gate were reconstructed after the fire, the five-story pagoda was not rebuilt. In the midst of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, on March 19, 1945 (Showa 20), the temple was burnt down again during the Nagoya Air Raid. After the war, in 1949 (Showa 24), temporary main hall and Niomon gate were constructed. Hopes were high among the people of Osu and those connected to the temple for the early reconstruction of the proper main hall, considering Osu Kannon's significance as a symbol of Osu. However, due to financial difficulties, the reconstruction was considerably delayed. Due to repeated flooding, the temple was moved to its present location in 1612 by

. 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'' (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 , also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period, was a period in Japanese history between 1336-1392 CE, during the formative years of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi (Ashikaga) shogunate. Ideologically, the two courts fought for 50 ...

. 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 is an underground metro station located in Naka-ku, Nagoya, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan operated by the Nagoya Municipal Subway's Tsurumai Line. It is located 7.8 rail kilometers (4.8 rail miles) from the terminus of the Tsurumai L ...

References

Sources

Pictures of the temple

External links