Kawasaki Daishi, Buddhist temple in Kawasaki, Japan
Kawasaki Daishi is a Buddhist temple in Daishi-machi, Kawasaki, Japan, with several buildings arranged around a central main hall. The grounds include ornate gates, an octagonal five-story tower, and numerous smaller shrines along the wide pathways between structures.
The fisherman Hirama Kanenori pulled a wooden statue of Kōbō Daishi from the sea and enshrined it in a small hall. In 1128 the monk Sonken of Mount Kōya joined him to found Heiken-ji, which honours that statue as its main image. Shogun Tokugawa Ienari visited in 1813, and the temple was largely rebuilt after the 1945 air raid.
The site honors Kōbō Daishi, the monk who brought Shingon Buddhism to Japan, and carries the formal name Heikenji. Worshippers join the daily goma ceremony, where wooden sticks inscribed with personal prayers are burned in a sacred fire ritual.
The nearest station is Kawasaki Daishi, from which the grounds can be reached within a short walk. Mornings are quieter, while weekends draw many families and worshippers to the site.
A collection of more than 7200 volumes of the Qianlong Tripitaka rests in a library on the grounds. This Buddhist canon was printed with woodblocks in China during the 18th century and is the last such work of its kind.
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