Visit Yagoto-san Kosho-ji Temple in Nagoya

Here is a place where you can find peace and leave your cares behind. Yagoto is known as Nagoya’s foremost area of natural beauty.

Travel only 20 minutes from Nagoya’s city center, take just few steps into the grounds, and the noise of the city becomes but a distant memory.

The extensive grounds of Yagoto-san Kosho-ji Temple stretch across the slopes of eastern Nagoya. In 1686, the famed monk Tenzui opened a temple among the trees in the peaceful setting of these rolling hills. At that time, the temple was strongly connected with the historically-important lords of the Owari branch of the ruling Tokugawa family. It is also a site on the pilgrimages of the Chita-Shikoku 88 temples, the Tokai 36 Fudoson-reijo, the Owari 33 Kannon, the Nagoya 21 Daishi, and Nagoya 7 Lucky Gods.

The premises cover two hills, Nishiyama to the west and Higashiyama to the east. Nishiyama formerly included the land where the Main Hall and the Five-Story Pagoda are now located. In Higashiyama, you can see numerous structures, including magnificent halls and towers, which have stood among the flourishing trees since the 17th century. Within the grounds you can marvel at the only wooden pagoda in the whole Tokai region. Built in 1808, this elegant Five-Story Pagoda is a National Important Cultural Asset. Everywhere, in the ancient documents kept in the halls and in the Buddhist images and implements, you can see the centuries-old roots of history.

For every generation over 300 years, the gates of Yagoto-san Kosho-ji Temple have been open to all who wish to enter. Even today, young monks come here for training and, more than ever, the local people often come just to enjoy a stroll. On land that has long been revered, among ancient structures and monuments, surrounded by nature, you can find peace and leave your cares behind.