Kōshō-ji, Yagoto

photo by gundam2345 · CC BY 3.0

photo by gundam2345 · CC BY 3.0

The five-storey pagoda of 1808 is 26 m tall: the oldest surviving one in the prefecture.

The seventh abbot collected the offerings one coin at a time and took twelve years to put up the pagoda. He finished it in 1808, and today it is the oldest of the five-storey pagodas still standing in Aichi Prefecture. Inside, at the centre of the shaft, sits the Buddha Dainichi, and around him, at the four cardinal points, four other Buddhas. As you climb from Yagoto you see it rise out of the trees even before the gate.

Kōshō-ji was founded in 1688 on Yagoto hill, south-east of the centre, as a special-rank head temple of the Shingon school of Mount Kōya (the esoteric Buddhism brought to Japan by the monk Kūkai in the ninth century). The grounds are divided in two: the eastern part open to everyone, the western part historically reserved for the monks. The five-storey pagoda dates from 1808: twenty-six metres tall, in wood, three bays wide, with traditional roof tiles, and it has been a national Important Cultural Property since 1982. The grounds also hold a garden that charges admission, the Fumon-en, with an early twentieth-century tea house moved here from Gifu.

ℹ️ Open every day 8:00–17:00; the grounds are free. The Fumon-en garden with the tea house costs from 500 yen and opens 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:30, but only during irregular periods announced on the temple's website: if it is the only reason for your trip, it is best to phone. On the 5th, 13th and 21st of each month religious services are held at 10:00, at 10:30 on the 21st; the stalls that some guides present as certain are not described on any of the temple's pages. The outer gate has been taken down for restoration and no end date has been stated. From Yagoto Station you walk uphill.

🚉 Yagoto · 6 min walk

Sources: koushoji.or.jp · city.nagoya.jp · city.nagoya.jp

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