惣善寺, Buddhist temple in Iwaki, Japan
Souzenji is a Buddhist temple in the Yumoto area of Iwaki, in Fukushima Prefecture. Inside its main hall stands a wooden statue of Amida Buddha dating to around 1335, recognized as an important cultural asset of the prefecture.
Souzenji was founded in 1522 during the Muromachi period by a monk named Jo-on, after a local ruler donated land to support his Pure Land teachings. The temple survived several fires over the centuries, including one during the Boshin War in the late 1860s, and the current main hall dates to 1877.
Souzenji is in the Yumoto area of Iwaki and can be reached on foot in about ten minutes from the nearby train station. The grounds are easy to walk around and require no special preparation.
The temple grounds hold the grave of the painter Todan Yasuda, who is remembered as the first Japanese artist to complete a Western-style copper plate print. In 2022, to mark 500 years since its founding, a dry stone garden was built on the grounds, designed to suggest a mountain stream and centered on a small statue of Jizo Bosatsu.
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