Chinkoku-ji

Quick facts

Address

966 Yoshida, Munakata, Fukuoka

Spiritual entities

Fudō Myōō (不動明王) · Vairocana (毘盧遮那佛, Birojana)

About this place

Chinkoku-ji is in Munakata, Fukuoka. Kobo Daishi, that is Kukai, met a great storm on the sixteenth embassy ship to Tang China. Fudo Myoo appeared among the waves, stilled them, and he reached Tang. After returning he saw auspicious clouds trailing over Mount Byobu and, receiving the word that this ground was to be the fundamental training hall for the protection of the realm, named it Byobusan Chinkoku-ji. As the buddha-forms of the three Munakata deities, three images were carved — Dainichi Nyorai, Shaka Nyorai and Yakushi Nyorai — and set as the principal images. The temple’s short history states no benefit that may be prayed for.

Origin and history

Kobo Daishi met a great storm on the sixteenth embassy ship to Tang China. Fudo Myoo appeared among the waves, stilled them, and he reached Tang.

After returning he saw auspicious clouds trailing over Mount Byobu and, receiving the word that this ground was to be the fundamental training hall for the protection of the realm, named it Byobusan Chinkoku-ji.

As the buddha-forms of the three Munakata deities, three images were carved — Dainichi Nyorai, Shaka Nyorai and Yakushi Nyorai — and set as the principal images.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spot

  The buddha-forms of the Munakata three

  Three images were carved as the buddha-forms of the three Munakata deities — Dainichi, Shaka and Yakushi Nyorai — and set as the principal images.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  Fudo Myoo among the waves

  Meeting a great storm on the sixteenth embassy ship to Tang, Kobo Daishi saw Fudo Myoo appear among the waves and still them, and reached Tang.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  Auspicious clouds, and a name

  Seeing auspicious clouds over Mount Byobu on his return, he received the word that this was to be the fundamental hall for protecting the realm, and named it accordingly.

  folk tradition

The principal images of this temple are the same beings as the deities of the shrine nearby. Carved as the buddha-forms of the three Munakata deities, the temple writes — Dainichi, Shaka and Yakushi. Munakata Taisha, on this same list, enshrines the three daughters of Amaterasu, and here those same three stand in another form. Places sharing a founder are common on this list; places whose objects of worship are the same beings are not.

The beginning happened at sea. On the sixteenth embassy ship he met a great storm, Fudo Myoo appeared among the waves and stilled them, and he reached Tang. A rescue on the way across became a temple after the return.

Kamado Shrine, also in Fukuoka, is the mountain that Saicho, Kukai and others climbed to pray for safety at sea before crossing. A mountain prayed on before the crossing and a temple founded on a rescue during it stand in the same prefecture.

The temple’s name came from what he was told on his return: seeing auspicious clouds over Mount Byobu, he received the word that this ground was to be the fundamental hall for the protection of the realm. No benefit is stated in the short history, so this page carries no tag for what may be prayed for.

Related guides

• How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
• What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
• Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
• Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.

Sources

1. 鎮國寺の略縁起 — Chinkoku-ji (accessed 2026-08-15)