Honzan-ji, Buddhist temple in Takatsuki, Japan.
Honzan-ji is a Buddhist temple located on a mountain in Takatsuki with multiple buildings and a main hall that houses an important statue of Bishamonten. The grounds contain several sacred spaces where nationally designated cultural treasures are preserved.
According to temple tradition, En no Ozunu founded it in 696 after carving a Bishamonten statue, and Prince Kaijō built the halls between 770 and 781. It burned in 1582 during the Battle of Yamazaki, and Toyotomi Hideyori rebuilt the bell tower and middle gate in 1603. In the Edo period the Nagai family and Keishōin sponsored repairs.
Honzan-ji is counted with Kurama-dera and Chōgosonshi-ji among the "Three Bishamonten of Japan", and its principal image is a wooden standing Bishamonten. That statue and a wooden standing Shō-Kannon were designated national treasures in April 1913 under the Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Act, the category now called Important Cultural Property; the Kannon is deposited at the Nara National Museum. A wooden standing Fudō Myōō, designated by Takatsuki City in October 1998, is kept at the temple.
From JR Takatsuki Station take the city bus bound for Haradai Bridge and get off at Kanmineguchi; the temple is about 6 km on foot from there. Cars can reach a parking lot 1 km before the temple, after which a steep paved lane continues, open to authorized vehicles only. A maintained mountain trail runs on the left of the paved lane and joins it where the steep slope ends; the Tokai Nature Trail follows the paved side.
The temple's documents, two scrolls and eleven letters, are held at the Takatsuki City Shiroato History Museum and were designated a city cultural property in March 1974. They include land-confirmation letters issued by the Christian daimyo Takayama Ukon and his father Tomoteru, and by Matsunaga Hisahide, who prayed here for advancement.
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