Noufuku-ji Temple

Nofuku-ji Temple is a historic Tendai Buddhist temple in Hyogo Ward, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. It is known for the Hyogo Daibutsu, a large Buddha statue that stands 11 meters tall (18 meters including the lotus pedestal and base). According to temple tradition, it was founded in Enryaku 24 (805) by Saicho, the founder of Japan’s Tendai school, widely known as Dengyo Daishi. Access is about a 15-minute walk from Hyogo Station on the JR Kobe Line, or about a 10-minute walk from Chuoichiba-mae Station on the Kobe Municipal Subway. The grounds feature many highlights, including the “Tsukinowa Kage-den” (main hall), relocated from the Tsukinowa Imperial Mausoleum precinct within Sennyu-ji Temple in Kyoto’s Higashiyama area; the Hyogo Daibutsu, once counted among Japan’s three great Buddhas before World War II; and the “Birushana Hall,” which enshrines a nationally designated Important Cultural Property: a wooden standing statue of the Eleven-Headed Kannon. Nofuku-ji is also known for its connection to Taira no Kiyomori. In Jisho 4 (1180), it is said to have prospered greatly after being designated as a prayer temple for the Taira clan in connection with plans to relocate the capital to Fukuhara. On the left side of the grounds stands Kiyomori’s mausoleum (Taira Sōkoku-byō), a memorial tower in the form of a thirteen-tier stone pagoda.