Kenponji, Buddhist temple in Sakai, Japan

Kenponji is a Hokke-shu Honmon-ryu temple in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, with the mountain name Joju-zan and a head temple relationship to Honko-ji. Its main hall was rebuilt in 2003 after the 1945 Sakai air raid destroyed the temple buildings. The grounds stand in the Sakaiku district, about three minutes on foot from Shukuin tram stop on the Hankai Sakai line.

Kenponji began in 1451 when wealthy Sakai merchants called Kiya and Kazuya turned their homes into a Hokke hall; it stood near Kaiguchi Shrine before moving to its present site after the 1615 Osaka summer campaign fire. It belonged to the Hokke-shu Honmon school, whose head temple Honnoji took refuge here from 1536 to about 1547. In 1532 the temple was where Miyoshi Motonaga took his own life, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi granted it 27 koku in 1586.

Kenponji belongs to the Hokke-shu Honmon-ryu school, and its founders were the merchants Kiya and Kadoya, who turned their homes into a Hokke hall in 1451. The temple's name is linked to the Honmon-ryu head temple Honkoku-ji, of which it is a branch. The high school Sanaka-ryu, a sub-temple, produced the popular song Ryutatsu-bushi in the Azuchi-Momoyama period.

Kenponji is about a three-minute walk from Shukuin tram stop on the Hankai Tramway Sakai line. Drivers can leave the Hanshin Expressway at the Sakai exit; there is a parking lot in the temple grounds for worshippers. The main hall dates from its 2003 reconstruction, after the 1945 air raids destroyed the temple buildings.

The temple's name appears in the 1532 siege when Miyoshi Motonaga, defeated by a rival, took refuge here and killed himself; the event ended the Sakai shogunate. The main hall was rebuilt in 2003 after the 1945 air raids destroyed the temple buildings.