Honganji gifu betsu-in, Buddhist temple in Gifu, Japan.
Honganji Gifu Betsu-in is a Buddhist temple featuring wooden structures with traditional Japanese design, prayer halls, and Buddhist decorations throughout its buildings. The grounds also serve as a place where families can have Buddhist monks perform services for their deceased relatives, with dedicated storage for ash containers.
The temple traces its origin to a small hall built beside the grave of Ichiyanagi Naotaka, a local lord of Nishino in Mino Province who became a follower of abbot Kenshin around 1570-1590. In 1603, when abbot Junnyo visited the area, Naotaka's son Naomori offered the hall to the Honganji, and it became known as Gifu Gobo or Nishino Gobo. It was renamed Gifu Betsu-in in 1876. The main hall was rebuilt in 1645, burned in 1713, rebuilt in 1720, and lost again in the Gifu air raid of 9 July 1945; the present hall dates from 1951.
The temple belongs to the Jodo Shinshu Honganji-ha school (Nishi Honganji). Its founder is venerated as Junnyo Shonin, who taught in the region in 1603, when the site became a temple residence called Gifu Gobo or Nishino Gobo. The main hall was rebuilt in 1951 after the Gifu air raid of 9 July 1945 destroyed it.
The temple stands in central Gifu, and the nearest stop is the Gifu Bus "Shimin Kaikan/Saibansho-mae" stop. From the JR Gifu Station bus terminal or the Meitetsu Gifu stop, take the Gifu Bus lines bound for Omino, Hoju Heights, Iwado Park or Dannoshima, or the Nagara line; buses run frequently. The main gate (Honmon) and rear gate (Uramon) are both prefectural Important Cultural Properties.
The temple's main gate (honmon) was rebuilt in 1756 and is a prefectural Important Cultural Property; the rear gate is likewise designated, and the sutra repository (kyōzō) is a city-designated cultural property. These structures survived the July 9, 1945 Gifu air raid that destroyed the main hall, which was rebuilt in 1951.
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