Hofukuji Temple in Soja

 

Hofukuji Temple is an historic Zen temple in Soja, Okayama.

It is most well known as being the temple where Sesshu trained as a child.

Sesshu, or Sesshu Toyo, was born around 1420 to a samurai family in what is now Soja City.

He went on to become a zen monk and one of the greatest Japanese painters.

He is also known for his gardens.

The most famous story connected to his time at Hofukuji was the story of Sesshu and the Rat

It is not known exactly when the temple was founded, but was originally of the Tendai Sect.

In 1232 it was converted into a Rinzai Zen temple, one of the first in the area.

It received Imperial patronage and grew powerful with more than 50 sub-temples and 300 branch temples at its peak.

In 1575 almost the whole temple was burned down during the Bitchu War, but the 3-story pagoda survived. It has been reliably dated to 1376 and is an Important Cultural Property and the oldest structure still standing here.

The rest of the temple was restored during the Edo Period. The main hall dates to 1735.

Other treasures include the 15th century temple bell, and several silk paintings.

There are two small gardens, a karesansui raked sand one, and a small pond garden.

Hofukuji is a great spot for autumn foliage.

At this time, the Hojo, the Abbots living quarters, are open to the public and paintings by Sesshu and other items relating to Sesshu's time at the temple are on display.

On this visit I was at the start of my 7th day walking the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

The previous post in the series was on Shorenji Temple in Takahashi.

Sesshu is one of my favorite garden designers, and over the years I have visited almost all of his gardens that still exist, but have not posted many on this blog.

His biggest garden is in Yamaguchi and I did recently post a lot of photos of it in full autumn foliage.