Hida Kokubun-ji Audio Guide

Hida Kokubun-ji: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Hida Kokubunji Temple

   Welcome to Hida Kokubunji Temple, known in Japanese as 飛騨国分寺. It sits in the Sowamachi neighborhood of Takayama, in Gifu Prefecture, in what was once Hida Province. It is right in downtown Takayama, a short distance from Takayama Station, so you can reach a piece of the eighth century on foot from the middle of the city. This is a Buddhist temple of the Koyasan Shingon school, and its main image is Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing. It is also one of the few provincial temples founded under Emperor Shomu in the Nara period that still survive. In 741, Shomu called for a temple to be built in every province, as a network meant to protect the realm. This is the one that answered the call for Hida. Over the next few stops we will look at three things: the ancient foundation stone of a seven-story pagoda, the Muromachi-period main hall, and the statues and the great ginkgo tree that give the grounds their character. Keep your eyes open for the ginkgo as you walk in. It is hard to miss.

2. 02

   Hida Kokubunji Temple and the Imperial Network

   Start with the big idea. In 741, in the thirteenth year of the Tenpyo era, Emperor Shomu issued an edict calling for provincial temples across the land. Hida's temple was apparently complete by around 757, the ninth year of Tenpyo Shoho, according to Takayama's city records. The temple's own tradition gives a slightly different date, 746, and credits the wandering priest Gyoki as founder. Historians note that the Gyoki attribution has no historical evidence behind it, so treat it as the temple's tradition rather than documented fact. The temple did not have an easy path through the centuries. A record in the Ruiju Kokushi notes that in the eighth month of 819, the Hida provincial temple burned. Another account says it was rebuilt in 855. Then the written record goes quiet until the early modern period. The temple's own story says the original complex was grand, with a seven-story pagoda, a golden hall and a Nio gate. Later, in 1587, Kanamori Nagachika, a retainer of Hideyoshi, rebuilt the temple at the earnest request of the priest Genkai, who is counted as its first reviver. That is why today's temple feels like layers of different eras rather than a single moment.

3. 03

   Hida Kokubunji Temple: Stone, Timber and the Main Hall

   East of the main hall you will find the oldest thing on the grounds: a huge foundation stone, ringed by a decorative fence. This is the heart stone of the seven-story pagoda, the base on which the central pillar once stood. It is roughly 2 meters square and about 1 meter high. On its top is a circular seat for the pillar, 133 centimeters across, with a hole in the center. That hole is the relic cavity, where sacred relics were placed. Takayama's city records judge the stone to date from the temple's founding. Now turn to the main hall. It is a national Important Cultural Property built in the Muromachi period, and it is described as the oldest surviving building in Takayama. It has a single story and a hip-and-gable roof covered in copper plate, with a veranda running around all four sides. It measures 12.4 meters along its length and 8.66 meters in depth, with a front porch of 3.33 meters. A dismantling and repair in 1954 revealed its story. The basic structure dates to before the middle of the Muromachi period, while the front porch and the east side were repaired in the Azuchi-Momoyama period. So you are looking at a building that has been patched and renewed, but whose bones are very old.

4. 04

   Hida Kokubunji Temple: Statues, Enku and the Milk Ginkgo

   The treasures here include a tall standing Sho Kannon, about 2 meters high, carved in the twelfth century, in the Heian period, from cypress wood, and it is a national Important Cultural Property. Tradition attributes it to a Kasuga sculptor and says it was the main image of the old Hida provincial nunnery. That nunnery declined toward the end of the Heian period, and its site is now the Tsujigamori Sansha shrines in Okamoto-machi. Tradition holds that the priest Genkai brought the statue here in the Tensho era, between 1573 and 1592. Its original paint is thought to have been colorful, though it has now flaked away. There is also a wooden Benzaiten by the monk-sculptor Enku, about 1 meter tall, from the Edo period. Enku lived from 1632 to 1695 and is said to have carved 120,000 statues in his lifetime, using a bold, hatchet-hewn style called natabori. He stayed in Hida around 1685. A six-armed Nyoirin Kannon in a pensive pose, said to have come from a former temple whose site is now Hida Toshogu, rounds out the group. Outside, look for the great ginkgo, estimated at 1250 years old, with a trunk 10 meters around and a height of 28 meters. Since ancient times it has been called the milk ginkgo. And one tradition says that when Takayama Castle was dismantled in 1695, part of it was moved here and used for the bell tower gate.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you head off, take one more slow look around the grounds and try to hold three eras in your mind at once: the eighth-century foundation stone, the Muromachi timber hall, and the Edo-period carvings inside. Few city temples let you do that so neatly. This temple is also the first stop on the Hida 33 Kannon pilgrimage, which fits its reputation as the oldest temple in the province. From the surrounding streets, you may notice the three-story pagoda and the big ginkgo rising above the roofs. As you wander, ask yourself which part of this place you would still recognize if you could see it as it was in the Nara period. Then notice what has been added since: the porch, the bell gate, the statues brought from elsewhere. That mix of loss, rebuilding and reuse is the real story here, and it is worth a second look on your way out.