Eifuku-ji, Buddhist temple in Kannawa Onsen, Japan.
Eifuku-ji is a Buddhist temple in Kannawa Onsen surrounded by tall bamboo forest with traditional wooden structures. The main Daishi-do building displays carved dragons and serves as a place of worship for Amida Buddha.
The temple traces its origin to a hermitage that Ippen, founder of the Ji-shū, is said to have established around 1276 after calming the hot-spring 'hells' of Kannawa. Ōtomo Yorihiro donated a hall, which Ippen named Shōju-ji after his childhood name Shōjumaro. After several periods of abandonment, it was revived in the Enkyō era and became a Ji-shū branch temple in 1748. The present Eifuku-ji was re-established on the Shōju-ji site in 1891, borrowing the name of a temple in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture.
The temple's name comes from Eifuku-ji in Onomichi, Hiroshima, whose temple name was borrowed in 1891 when the site was revived on the former Shōju-ji grounds. Each year on 21–23 September the Kannawa Yuami Matsuri revives the Edo-period rite of bathing a wooden statue of Ippen, with a children's procession through the onsen streets.
The temple is easily reached by regular bus services connecting central Beppu to the Kannawa Onsen area. Most visitors can freely walk the grounds and explore at their own pace.
The bamboo forest around the temple creates distinct sounds when wind passes through it. Visitors often notice this natural soundscape as they walk through the tall stalks.
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