Manpuku-ji, Buddhist temple in Asahichō, Tochigi, Japan
Manpuku-ji is a Shingon Chizan school temple in Asahichō, Tochigi, with the mountain name Kyōō-zan. Its 2011 main hall, Daibirushana-den, replaced the earlier hall, which became the Daishi-dō; the grounds also hold a Kannon hall, a Kichijōten hall and a hall for the three demon kings. The temple is the 18th stop on the Oku no Hosomichi pilgrimage route.
The temple began in 1262 when the monk Chōkai, from the study of the scholar Kenjin at Hōon-in of Daigo-ji in Kyoto, built a hermitage at the foot of Taihei-san in what is now Sonobe-chō, Tochigi. During the Tenshō era it was moved to Asahi-chō by order of Minagawa Hiroteru, lord of Minagawa Castle, and served as guardian of the castle town's eastern gate. In 1591 Tokugawa Ieyasu rested here during a falconry excursion and granted the temple a five-koku seal. A great fire destroyed all its halls in 1862; rebuilding began in 1897 under Nagasawa Taijun, and the current main hall, the Daibirushana-den, was completed in 2011 for the temple's 750th anniversary.
The temple's name for its main hall, Daibirushana-den, comes from Dainichi Nyorai, the central Buddha of the Shingon school. The grounds hold a set of three demon statues in red, blue-green and black, unusual as a trio, honoured at festivals on the 16th of January and August. The painter Tanaka Isson, who worked on Amami Oshima, lies buried here with his family.
Manpuku-ji stands in Asahichō, Tochigi, about 15 minutes on foot from the north exit of Tochigi Station on the JR Ryōmō and Tōbu Nikkō lines, or five minutes by taxi; rental bicycles for sightseeing are available in the city. By car it is roughly ten minutes from the Tōhoku Expressway's Tochigi interchange.
The temple's San'kison enshrines three demon figures in red, blue-green and black, a set rare in Japan and attributed by some to the sculptor Hidari Jingorō. They are thought to be mountain guardian deities venerated by ascetics travelling between Edo and Nikkō, not servants of King Enma. Festivals were held on the 16th of January and August after the war.
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