Rinsen-ji Temple, Buddhist temple in Joetsu, Japan

Rinsen-ji is a Sōtō Zen temple at the foot of Mount Kasugayama. Its two-storey gate, rebuilt in 1925, has a white-plastered upper storey with dark timber framing, a narrow balcony and a grey tiled roof; below, a dark brown tiled roof shelters an open passage with two niches holding seated figures. A blue plaque with gold characters hangs on the upper facade, and the gate stands on a stone base reached by steps.

The temple was founded in 1497 by Nagao Yoshikage in honor of his father and later became the family temple of the Uesugi clan during the Sengoku period. Throughout this turbulent era of regional conflicts, it remained a center of spiritual and administrative activity.

The temple keeps the founder's kesa robe and begging bowl, and its abbots trace a direct line back to the 1497 foundation. The name Rinsen-ji is also carried by a branch temple the Uesugi established in Yonezawa in the early Edo period.

Rinsen-ji sits at the foot of Kasugayama, about 2 km west of Kasugayama Station on the Echigo Tokimeki Railway, roughly 25 minutes on foot. The Kubiki Bus line 7 stops at Rinsen-ji Iriguchi, a 10-minute walk from the temple. The grounds are reached by steps up to the stone base of the gate.

The blue plaque with gold characters on the gate's upper facade reads "Daiichigi" (第一義), and it is in Uesugi Kenshin's own hand. The temple keeps the original; the plaque visitors see is a copy. Kenshin took the name Fusikian Kenshin from his teacher at Rinsen-ji, the seventh abbot Ekio Soken.