“Mount Kōya of Tosa Province”
● Site No. 13 of the Shikoku Thirty-Three Kannon Pilgrimage.● Principal Altar Figure: Kōbō Daishi
(Enshrined from Kongōbu-ji, the head temple of Mount Kōya)
● Attendant Deities: Fudō Myōō 1, Aizen Myōō
(1 Enshrined from Kongō Sanmai-in, Mount Kōya)
● Kannon Hall Principal Figure: Ichi-yō Kannon Bosatsu
(One-Leaf Kannon Bodhisattva)
Kōyaji Temple History
Kōyaji Temple belongs to the Kōyasan Shingon School of Buddhism.
In the early Meiji period, due to the government policy of separating Shinto and Buddhism (shinbutsu bunri) and the anti-Buddhist movement (haibutsu kishaku), nearly 70 percent of temples in Kōchi were tragically destroyed.
Lamenting the moral and spiritual decline of society, Reverend Hara Shinchō, head priest of Jōzō-in, a sub-temple of Kongōbu-ji on Mount Kōya, traveled to Tosa Province with the vow to establish a “Mount Kōya of Tosa.”
In Meiji 15 (1881), with the support of Itagaki Taisuke and others, Kōyaji Temple was founded as a Mount Kōya branch temple, with the aim of reviving Buddhism in Kōchi. Although the temple was reduced to ashes by air raids during the Second World War, it was rebuilt after the war and continues to the present day.
