Hogon-ji

Hogon-ji is a temple of the Shingon Buzan school on Chikubushima, an island in Lake Biwa. According to the temple, it began in 724, when Emperor Shomu received a message from the sun goddess Amaterasu in a dream and sent the monk Gyoki as his envoy to found halls on the island. The principal image, the Great Benzaiten, is counted among the Three Great Benzaiten of Japan with those of Enoshima and Miyajima, and the Kannon Hall is the 30th temple of the Saigoku 33 Kannon pilgrimage. When Shinto and Buddhism were separated in the Meiji era, the main hall building was handed over to Tsukubusuma Shrine, and the present main hall (Benzaiten Hall) was rebuilt in 1942.

The Karamon Gate, a National Treasure, is a gate with a karahafu curved gable. According to the temple, it is the Gokuraku Gate of the Hokoku mausoleum of Hideyoshi in Higashiyama, Kyoto, moved here on the orders of Toyotomi Hideyori with Katagiri Katsumoto in charge of the work. The temple's history page gives the year of the move as 1602, while the ridge tablet records 1603, the year also given by the national cultural properties database. Because of the island's terrain, it was set against the Kannon Hall. It is a one-bay, single-doorway gate facing forward under its curved gable, with a cypress-bark roof. The whole gate is lacquered black and studded with gilt metal fittings, and carvings of phoenixes, pines, rabbits and peonies around the frog-leg strut and peony scrolls on the doors and walls are painted in rich colors.

The Gokuraku Gate is thought to have begun as the Gokuraku Bridge of Osaka Castle. The temple explains that diaries of the time record that the bridge was moved to the Hokoku mausoleum and that the Gokuraku Gate there was donated to Chikubushima. In addition, a folding screen of Osaka Castle found at Eggenberg Castle in Austria in 2006 depicts the Gokuraku Bridge, and this has drawn attention to the idea that the Karamon may be the only surviving building of the Osaka Castle built by Hideyoshi.

The Kannon Hall (Important Cultural Property), joined to the back of the Karamon, is also thought to have been built in 1603, the same year as the gate. Because it stands on a slope, part of it is built on long pillars in the kakezukuri style, and the pillars are lacquered black even below the floor, which shows that the hall was moved here. The principal image, a standing Thousand-Armed Kannon, is a hidden Buddha shown only once every 60 years; the next showing is in 2037. From the Kannon Hall, the roofed Funa-roka corridor (Important Cultural Property) runs to Tsukubusuma Shrine. Its name comes from a tradition that it was built with timber from the deckhouse of Hideyoshi's flagship, the Nihon Maru.

The Karamon, Kannon Hall and corridor were repaired over six years from fiscal 2013, with new cypress-bark roofs and fresh lacquer and paint, and the work was completed in March 2020. From the pier, 165 stone steps lead up to the main hall. The grounds also hold a three-story pagoda rebuilt in 2000 for the first time in about 350 years, a 247-centimeter five-story stone pagoda (Important Cultural Property) and a treasure hall. The Renge-e on August 15 is the largest event on the island. Boats to the island leave from Nagahama Port and Imazu Port; the route from Hikone Port has been suspended since August 14, 2026.