Hogon-ji Temple

Hogon-ji on Chikubu Island in Nagahama, Shiga, is a Shingon Buzan-school temple on the small sacred island in northern Lake Biwa. It is the 30th station of the Saigoku 33-Kannon pilgrimage and is counted among the three great Benzaiten temples of Japan together with Enoshima Shrine in Kanagawa and Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima. The principal image is Dai Benzaiten, and the Kannon hall enshrines Senju Sengen Kannon. Benzaiten appears in Nihon Shoki (720 CE) and Kaifuso, and was syncretized in Shinto as Ichikishima-hime, one of the three Munakata goddesses of the Kojiki Ukei narrative. Tradition credits Gyoki with founding the temple under imperial vow of Emperor Shomu in 724 CE. The karamon gate (National Treasure) and the boat corridor are said to have been transferred from Osaka Castle by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Tsukubusuma Shrine on the island was separated in the Meiji period. The March Benzaiten festival is the principal rite.