Ryūhon-ji Temple, Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan

Ryūhon-ji is a Nichiren-shū head temple in Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto, with the mountain name Gusoku-zan. Its main hall (hondō), rebuilt in 1743, is a dark timber frame with white plaster panels, tall sliding doors and a deep grey tiled hipped roof curving up at the corners; a wooden railing runs along its raised stone-based platform. The precinct also holds the 1728 Kyakuden (Enrin-dō), the Ryūge Garden laid out around 1850, a bell tower and a 1778 main gate, all city-designated cultural properties.

Ryūhon-ji began in 1321 as Ryūge-in, a subtemple of Myōken-ji founded by Nichizō, and took its present name after being rebuilt at Shijō-Kushige in 1416. Burned in the 1536 Tenbun Hokke War, it fled to Sakai and returned in 1544 to Shinmachi-Sanjō. Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered its move to Teramachi-Imadegawa in 1594; after a 1708 fire at Kyōgoku-Imadegawa it came to its current site, where the founder's hall, bell tower and sutra repository were relocated.

Ryūhon-ji, Myōken-ji and Myōkaku-ji all use the mountain name Gusoku-zan and are known together as the "Three Gusoku of Ryūge" (Ryūge no mitsugusoku). The temple keeps the legend of the "ghost child-rearing candy": a dead mother is said to have come to buy sweets for her child. Its former founder's hall now serves as the shukubō lodging "Shishinkaku".

Ryūhon-ji stands at 107 Ichibanchō, Shichihonmatsu-dōri, Imadegawa-dōri agaru, Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto. The nearest station is Kitano-Hakubaichō on the Keifuku Kitano Line, about 15 minutes on foot. The precinct is entered through the 1778 gate, and the main hall, guest hall and bell tower are all within a short walk of it.

Ryūhon-ji keeps a legend of the "ghost child-rearing candy": a mother who had died came back to buy sweets for her child. The temple also holds the graves of Haia Shōeki, who bought out the courtesan Yoshino Tayū, and of the warrior Shima Sakon.