Ganshō-ji, Buddhist temple in Nagoya, Japan

Ganshō-ji is a Sōtō Zen temple in the Higashi ward of Nagoya, founded in 1528 by Oda Nobuhide. Its surviving Edo-period gate, said to have been moved from Kiyosu Castle, stands among office buildings; the main hall, bell tower and other structures were destroyed in the 1945 air raids. The temple is to move to Yada in 2026, and the gate will go with it.

Founded in 1528 by Oda Nobuhide as a memorial to his mother, Hōshō-in, Ganshō-ji was first built in Tsuchida village, now part of Kiyosu. Its mountain gate is said to have been moved from Kiyosu Castle, a transfer recorded in a moving inventory kept at Nagoya's Hōsa Library. In 1610 the temple relocated to its present Higashi-ku site as part of the Kiyosu transfer, and in 2026 it is due to move again, to Yada.

From 1967 the temple's Ganshō Nagaya hall hosted a rakugo storytelling circle founded by Sekiyama Kazuo, staging ten or eleven performances a year with masters such as Yanagiya Kosan, Katsura Beichō and San'yūtei Enshō. On 31 December 1972 the hall served as a regional venue for the 23rd NHK Kōhaku song contest, and the gathering ended in June 2013 after 454 sessions.

Ganshō-ji stands in a business district of Higashi-ku, Higashisakura, its grounds reduced by wartime bombing and postwar city planning; the cemetery was moved to Heiwa Park. The temple is to relocate to Yata, also in Higashi-ku, in 2026, and its gate, said to come from Kiyosu Castle, will move with it. Check access before a visit.

The temple gate is said to have been moved here from Kiyosu Castle; a moving inventory from that time survives in the Nagoya City Hōsa Library. When the temple relocates to Yada in 2026, the gate is to move with it, 400 years after its first transfer.