Fudarakusan-ji, Buddhist temple in Higashimuro County, Japan
Fudarakusan-ji is a Tendai temple in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, whose grounds form part of the national historic site Kumano Sanzan and of the 2004 UNESCO World Heritage property Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range. Its main hall, rebuilt in 1990, follows a Muromachi-style raised-floor design with a pyramidal hip roof. The honzon is a standing Thousand-Armed Kannon of single-block construction, 172 cm tall and dated to the Heian period. Next to the temple stands Kumano Sansho Omikami Shrine, on the site of the former Hamanomiya Oji.
The temple was founded by Indian monk Ragyō Shōnin, who arrived after a shipwreck on the Kumano coast over a thousand years ago. The site developed into a major pilgrimage destination and received UNESCO World Heritage status in 2004.
The temple's name transcribes Potalaka, the Sanskrit name of Kannon's pure land. Its main image is a Heian-period thousand-armed Kannon, 172 cm tall, carved from a single block of wood and designated an Important Cultural Property in 1982. Annual rites include the spring festival and memorial for the Fudarakutokai voyagers on May 17.
The temple stands in Nachikatsuura, a three-minute walk from JR Nachi Station on the Kisei Main Line. The precinct is compact and level, with the main hall, the Kumano Sanjo Omisha next door and the shore of Nachi no Hama close by. The grounds form part of the national historic site Kumano Sanzan.
Of more than 40 recorded Fudarakutokai departures from Japan, 25 left from this temple. The boat's deckhouse had no door: once the voyager entered, planks were fitted and nailed shut from outside, and four torii on its sides stood for the gates of awakening, practice, bodhisattva and nirvana. In the 16th century the monk Konkōbō escaped from the deckhouse and swam to an island, where he was caught and thrown back into the sea alive; the island is now called Konkobujima.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,603 contributors worldwide.