Tochoji Temple
licensed photographNick-D / CC BY-SA 4.0

Fukuoka · Hakata Old TownNo.1162★★Open in map →

Tochoji Temple

historyOff the trail — and worth it

A Shingon temple in the temple quarter of Hakata Old Town, a minute from a subway exit, holding a wooden Great Buddha whose pedestal you can walk through. Temple tradition credits its founding to Kukai, on his return from Tang China.

  1. FromHakata Station
  2. ~10 minSubway, one stop from Hakata
  3. Get off atGion Station (Fukuoka City Subway Kuko Line)
  4. On foot
  5. Tochoji Temple
Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a well-known temple on a well-walked route, not a find. What gets missed is not the temple but its interior. The pagoda photographs well from the street, so plenty of visitors never enter the Great Buddha hall at all, and that hall keeps shorter hours than the grounds. Quiet here is a matter of stepping through one doorway rather than choosing an hour of the day.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Tochoji hexagonal chapelHirho / CC BY-SA 4.0
  1. The main gatethe street-side entrance beside the subway exit, opening straight onto the temple quarter
  2. The five-storey pagodavermilion and black tiers of cypress under a gilded finial, framed by office blocks
  3. The Great Buddha halla seated Shakyamuni of 10.8 metres in wood, with a walk-through passage inside its pedestal
  4. The hexagonal chapela small six-sided hall on stone steps, its revolving cabinet of images kept inside
  5. The Kuroda family gravesstone stupas of the lords of Fukuoka in a walled corner of the grounds

How to actually get there

  1. Hakata Station → Gion Station (Fukuoka City Subway Kuko Line, one stop).
  2. Gion Station Exit 1 → the temple gate (walk about 1 min).
  3. Enter the Great Buddha hall first and take the passage under the pedestal, then come out to the pagoda and the hexagonal chapel.
  4. Leave by the same gate and carry on to Jotenji and the rest of the Hakata Old Town temples.
Fukuoka City Subway Kuko Line from Hakata Station
Hakata Station →(Kuko Line, one stop)→ Gion Station, then about a minute on foot from Exit 1. Trains run frequently through the day, so there is no timetable to plan around. The gates take Hayakaken and the nationally interoperable IC cards as well as paper tickets.
Return from Gion Station
Gion Station is one stop back to Hakata Station, and runs on to Nakasu-Kawabata and Tenjin in the other direction. Services are frequent into the evening, but check the last departure on the platform if you stay late.
Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Tochoji occupies a block of Gokushomachi, the temple quarter of Hakata Old Town, hemmed in by office towers and a hotel. A five-storey pagoda built entirely of cypress rises about 26 metres from the middle of the grounds, and the office windows behind it read as part of the picture rather than a nuisance. The hall of the Fukuoka Great Buddha stands behind the pagoda, holding a seated Shakyamuni carved in wood. Around them are a hexagonal chapel, the graves of the lords who ruled Fukuoka, and a hall of the founder. The precinct is small enough to cross on foot, which is why it works as a stop between trains.

How to enjoy it

The grounds keep to 9:00-17:00 and the Great Buddha hall closes at 16:45, so if you arrive late in the day, go into the hall first and look up at the pagoda on the way out. The precinct takes only a few minutes to cross, which makes it a sensible use of a gap between trains. Jotenji, another of the quarter's old temples, is a short walk from the same station, so the two can be strung together.

Background & history

Temple tradition puts the founding in 806, when Kukai, known as Kobo Daishi, came back from Tang China and raised a hall by the shore here to pray that esoteric Buddhism would spread eastward. The city describes it as the oldest of the temples he founded in Japan. The hexagonal chapel, which holds a revolving cabinet of images, was built in 1842 and is a city-designated structure, and the graves of the Kuroda lords of Fukuoka in the grounds are a city-designated historic site. The Great Buddha itself was completed in 1992.

Before you go

Cash
The grounds are entered from the street. Fees for the Great Buddha hall and the treasure room are set by the temple and are not published on the city or prefectural tourism pages, so ask on site rather than assuming. On the subway, Hayakaken and the nationally interoperable IC cards work alongside cash.
Before you go
The Great Buddha hall shuts before the grounds do. The passage under the pedestal is genuinely unlit, so it is not the place to bring anyone unsteady on their feet. The precinct is small and fills on festival days, above all the Setsubun rites at the start of February.
Another way
Coming straight from the airport, the same Kuko Line runs from Fukuoka Airport through Hakata to Gion without a change. From Tenjin, ride two stops back the other way.
After you get off
Exit 1 at Gion Station comes up on the temple's own street and the gate is a few paces off, which is why the city's guide simply says the temple is right at the exit.