白蓮院, Buddhist temple in Edogawa-ku, Japan
Byakuren-in is a Nichiren Shoshu temple at 5-7-15 Kita-Koiwa, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo. Its main hall and kuri were newly built when the temple moved to this site on 5 September 1966. The temple is a five-minute walk from Keisei-Koiwa Station on the Keisei Main Line.
Founded on 28 April 1909 as the Sunamura Mondō Hokke Honmon Dōjō by people linked to the Sunamura Mondō of the Tenpō era, with the Nichiren Shōshū head priest Nisshō of Taisekiji as founder. Renamed Sunamachi Kyōkaisho in 1929, it burned down on 10 March 1945. In 1948 it was named Byakuren-in and re-established in Bunkyō; in 1966 it moved to its present site in Kita-Koiva, where a new main hall and priest's quarters were built.
Byakuren-in belongs to the Nichiren Shōshū school and traces its name to the 1948 renaming by the 64th high priest Nisshō, when it was re-established in Bunkyō. Its founding in 1909 was carried out by people connected to the Sunamura Mondō, a Hokke debate of the Tenpō era, and the temple is now a local base for Hokkekō lay believers.
The temple grounds are walkable from multiple train stations in Edogawa-ku, making access by public transportation straightforward. Visitors should remember this is an active religious site, so respectful behavior is important.
The temple's name comes from its 1948 re-establishment in Bunkyo by the 64th high priest Nissho, and it moved to its current Kita-Koiwa location in 1966. A dispute led to the second chief priest's expulsion in 1982, during which the temple's Hokke-kō members were placed under the care of Danjo-ji in Ichikawa, Chiba, until reconciliation in 2002.
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