Kashuizan Jokanji Temple of the Honganji Branch of Jodo Shinshu
Founder of the school: Saint Shinran, about 800 years ago
Temple founder: Reverend Jōshin, about 700 years ago
Established: during the Einin era
Revitalized by the thirteenth head priest, Reverend Shokan
Although founded in the Einin years, a great fire in Matsuzaki village in the Genroku years spared only the principal image while burning the temple buildings to the ground. After that the temple used a temporary main hall, but it was rebuilt during the Kōka years by Reverend Shokan and has stood since then.
The main hall is built in the shishinden style, and the worship beam bears carvings by the renowned Edo-period single-blade woodcarver Hanbee Ishida. Hanbee’s works are few, and the powerful motion of his blade is unmatched.
The ceiling and transoms of the inner sanctuary of the main hall are decorated with brightly colored plaster trowel paintings by master craftsman Chōhachi Irie, active from the late Edo period into the early Meiji era.
In addition, the revitalizer Reverend Shokan opened a school from the Kansei years onward. Known as the Kashui private school, it produced some 530 pupils and is said to have been the oldest and largest of the many private schools in the prefecture.
March, Showa 53 (1978)
Recorded by the seventeenth head priest of this temple, Shaku Kōryū