Gyokusenji Main Hall

Temple at Hodosan Shrine

Gyokusenji Hondo or Gyoku temple main hall is the temple beside Hodosan shrine. Often overshadowed by the famous shrine, the temple often gets mistaken as an administrative building! The shrine and the temple grounds are interlinked, but the temple does have its own main gate. It is below the torii entrance to the shrine. You can walk from the back of the shrine over a cement bridge with red railings to the Inari shrine from which there are dozens of steps down to the back of the temple. The temple and the shrine are further linked by an overhead passageway that runs from the interiors of both and as such is sealed off from the public. You can walk under the passageway to the front of the temple. The main hall of the temple looks more like a martial arts hall than a temple hall. It is a wooden structure fronted with Japanese shoji style windows.