Honpō-ji, Buddhist temple in Upper Kyoto, Japan

Honpō-ji is a Nichiren-shū head temple in Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto, with the mountain name Eishōzan. Its main hall, rebuilt in 1797, has a dark tiled roof with deep eaves, white rectangular panels between the upper beams, and an open facade behind a low wooden railing. The grounds hold the Tomoe Garden, a dry landscape garden by Hon'ami Kōetsu with three mounds forming a tomoe pattern, and a lotus pond edged with a circular stone and a ten-sided cut-stone rim.

Nisshin founded the temple in 1436 after gaining the patronage of Hon'ami Honkō. Imprisoned and the temple burned in 1440 for his remonstrance to shogun Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, he rebuilt it at Sanjō-Marikōji in 1463. It was destroyed again in the 1536 Tenmon Hokke Rebellion, rebuilt in 1542, and moved to its present site in 1587 under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The 1788 Tenmei fire spared only the kyōzō and hōzō; the main hall was rebuilt in 1797.

The temple's name comes from the Lotus Sutra, and its head temple status in the Nichiren school is reflected in the 34 subtemples it once had, of which three remain: Sōnyō-in, Kyōgyō-in and Kyōzō-in. The Hōjō garden, laid out by Hon'ami Kōetsu, is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty.

The temple stands in Kamigyō-ku, a 15-minute walk from Kuramaguchi Station on the Karasuma subway line. The main hall, refectory, abbot's quarters and gate are Kyoto Prefecture-designated cultural properties, and the garden is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty. The Nōmon gate faces the Urasenke Konnichian tea house directly across the street.

The garden's dry waterfall is built from stones, with a vertically striped blue stone set in front of the rockwork to stand for falling water. In front of the shoin veranda lies a ten-sided lotus pond edged with a round stone and cut stones marking the sun, planted with lotus to express sun and lotus together. Hon'ami Kōetsu is credited with the design, restored in 1972.