Honren-ji

Japanese: 本蓮寺 (honren ji)

Honren-ji is a Nichiren sect Buddhist temple in Ushimado, a port town in Okayama prefecture.

The temple was originally founded during the Nanbokuchô period, and was re-established or revived in 1438 by Nichigyô, a disciple of Nichiren. The temple then came to be patronized by the Ishihara family, a wealthy local family involved in maritime trade, some members of whom took the tonsure and joined Honren-ji as monks.

The temple fell into decline again in the 16th century, but was revived around 1660. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, the temple came to host Korean embassies to Edo on a number of occasions when such missions passed through the Inland Sea on their way to and from Edo.

A number of buildings in the complex, including the hondô (main hall, 1492), chûmon (middle gate, c. 1492), banshin-dô (a sutra hall, Muromachi period), have been designated as Important Cultural Properties.

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References

Chôsen tsûshinshi to Okayama, Okayama Prefectural Museum, 2007, 34.