Kojima-dera Temple: A Koyasan Shingon Buddhist Temple in Nara
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Tokugawa
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Temple
On this page9 sections
History
Kojima-dera Temple is a Koyasan Shingon Buddhist temple in Takatori, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Its foundation is associated with the eighth century, although competing traditions give dates of 644, 752, and 760. The temple is dedicated principally to Dainichi Nyorai, the central cosmic Buddha of Esoteric Buddhism, and its historical importance rests especially on the development of the Kojima school of Shingon and the preservation of the Heian-period Kojima Mandala.
Competing foundation traditions
Temple tradition gives 752 as the foundation date. Another widely circulated account places the foundation in 760, when the monk Hoon established Kojimayama-dera beside the Kojima shrine in Takichi District at the imperial prayer-vow of Empress Koken. A different interpretation identifies the temple with Hokonoki-dera, which the Nihon Shoki says Soga no Emishi built on Oniho Mountain in 644. A further record attributes the construction of Kojimayama-dera during the Enryaku era, in the late eighth century, to Emperor Kanmu on Mount Tankeizan. This may have resulted from confusion between Tankeizan and Oniho Mountain.
Early references to Kojimayama-dera suggest that the original foundation stood in a mountainous setting. Oniho Mountain is generally identified with present-day Nyudani in Takatori, although another interpretation places it at Nyudani in Asuka. Kannon-in at Kami-Kojima shares the Kojimayama mountain name and a similar foundation tradition, and the two temples are regarded as closely related. The original Kojima-dera may therefore have stood in that vicinity.
Heian-period expansion and the Kojima school
During the early Heian period, Kojima-dera became one of the leading Kannon pilgrimage temples in Yamato Province, following Hasedera and Tsubosakadera. Kannon is a bodhisattva associated with compassion. The monk Enchin, also known as Kenshin, and the court official and military commander Sakanoue no Tamuramaro are traditionally connected with the establishment of Kiyomizudera in Kyoto as a branch temple of Kojima-dera. According to the foundation tradition, Enchin reached the Otowa Waterfall after a spiritual dream and established Kiyomizudera by enshrining a Thousand-Armed Kannon, a form understood to have many means of aiding living beings.
The temple temporarily declined during the middle Heian period. In 983, the Kofukuji monk Shingō entered the temple, restored it, and founded Kankakuji at the foot of the mountain as a subsidiary temple. He also established the Kojima school of Shingon Buddhism, a historical lineage that developed at Kojima-dera. The temple had previously been associated principally with Hosso Buddhism and the study of eight Buddhist schools. After Shingō’s reforms, it prospered as a Shingon center and became known as Kankakuji.
At its height, the complex identified as Kankakuji reportedly included 21 subsidiary temples and extended across a broad area of present-day Takatori and Asuka. Fujiwara no Michinaga, a powerful Heian court noble who dominated imperial politics, visited the temple in 1007. The Kojima school’s influence also included the transmission of the Kojima Mandala, which remains central to the temple’s historical identity.
Medieval decline and early modern protection
Kojima-dera declined after becoming involved in the conflicts of the Muromachi period. It was later revived under the patronage of the Honda family, lords of Takatori Domain and castellans of Takatori Castle. During the early modern period, the temple came under the authority of Ichijo-in of Kofukuji and received protection from the Honda and Uemura families. It was then known as Kojimayama Senju-in.
The present main hall was built in 1848 by the monk Kenno, who came from Tsubosakadera. The Meiji government’s anti-Buddhist movement, a campaign that separated Buddhism from state-supported Shinto institutions and caused the destruction, confiscation, or abandonment of many Buddhist temples and objects, brought another period of decline. Kojima-dera lost its patrons and was temporarily without a resident priest. Local volunteers helped restore the temple’s activity, and it formally resumed the name Kojima-dera in 1903.
Religious affiliations and pilgrimage
The temple remains affiliated with Koyasan Shingon Buddhism and with the Kojima school of Shingon. It was formerly one of the temples included in the Yamato Seven Lucky Gods pilgrimage, with Daikokuten assigned to it. For administrative reasons, the Daikokuten pilgrimage stamp was later transferred from Kojima-dera to Hasedera. The temple is also known by the names Kankakuji, Kojimayama-dera, and Hokonoki-dera, while Senju-in was its early modern name.
Remains
Main hall
The principal surviving building is the main hall, constructed in 1848 during the late Edo period. It houses the temple’s principal image, a statue of Dainichi Nyorai, who is understood in Esoteric Buddhism as the embodiment of ultimate Buddhist reality. The building represents the temple’s late early-modern form after its revival under local and regional patronage.
Mountain gate
The mountain gate was moved from the second gate of Takatori Castle. It is one of the few surviving architectural remains of the castle and now forms part of Kojima-dera’s physical heritage. Its presence connects the temple’s built fabric with the former stronghold of the Honda family, who governed Takatori Domain and helped revive the temple during the early modern period.
Buddhist images and mandalas
A wooden standing statue of the Eleven-Faced Kannon is among the temple’s important cultural properties. This form of Kannon is represented with multiple faces expressing different aspects of compassionate response. Together with the principal image of Dainichi Nyorai, it reflects the temple’s association with both Kannon worship and Shingon Buddhist teaching.
Kojima-dera transmits the Kojima Mandala, formally a pair known as the Two-World Mandalas. Created in the middle Heian period, the mandalas use gold and silver pigment on dark blue twill. A Two-World Mandala represents the complementary Womb Realm and Diamond Realm systems at the center of Shingon ritual and doctrine. The Kojima Mandala is regarded as a representative work alongside the Takao Mandala of Jingoji, a historic Buddhist temple in Kyoto. Tradition holds that Shingō received the mandalas from Emperor Ichijo in recognition of prayers for the emperor’s recovery from illness. They are deposited with the Nara National Museum.
