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HistoryKameyama Hontoku-ji Temple

Built by the head priest Rennyo as the Shikoku Island area base of Hongan-ji Temple in the Middle Ages, Kameyama Hontoku-ji Temple was a temple of the family members of Buddhist priests of the Jodo Shinshu sect. Connected to Ishiyama Osaka Hongan-ji Temple via Seto Inland Sea routes, it became the western base of the Ikko-shu, an offshot of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Initially, the temple prospered where it was formed in Aga, Himeji, but it was destroyed by the military regimes of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and was moved to its current location in Kameyama after receiving a donation of temple territory from Hideyoshi.
In the modern era, the temple belonged to the Western Hongan-ji Temple sect, functioning as an administrative office for the sect in Shikoku, and the central temple for Harima Province. Since the Meiji period (1868-1912), it has operated as a special branch temple with Shinshu temples and priests in the Banshu area as its congregation. After WWII, the temple belonged to the Hongan-ji Temple sect of Jodo Shinshu, and is a venerable temple of the same sect. Most of the 30 temple buildings are registered cultural properties, and are valuable as major remains of Shinshu temple architecture from the early modern period.