Hongan-ji Tsumura Annex

Hongwanji Tsumura Betsuin is a Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha temple located in Honmachi 4-chome, Chuo Ward, Osaka City. Commonly known as “Kita Midō,” it traces its origins to 1496, when Rennyo—the 8th head of Hongwanji—built Ishiyama Gobo on the site of today’s Osaka Castle. In 1533, a temple town formed around it as the main headquarters of the Hongwanji religious organization. Although the head temple moved to Kyoto in 1591 through a donation from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a lodging temple called “Tsumura Gobo” was established on the current site in 1597, and it came to be known as “Kita Midō.” The temple was completely destroyed in the Osaka air raids in March 1945, but it was rebuilt in 1964 as a modern grand hall designed by architect Hidetō Kishida, replacing the Edo-period wooden precincts. The complex is reinforced concrete, integrating multiple functions such as the main hall, event halls, and offices; the stone staircase leading from Midosuji Avenue up toward the main hall is especially striking. In 2019, to raise awareness of the relationship between Osaka and Hongwanji since the days of Osaka Hongwanji, the “Kita Midō Museum” opened to the public on the first floor.