Chogosonshi-ji

Quick facts

Address

2280-1 Shigisan, Heguri, Ikoma, Nara

About this place

Chogosonshi-ji is in Heguri, Nara, and its principal image is Bishamonten. In 582, at the tiger hour of the tiger day of the tiger year, Prince Shotoku perceived Bishamonten on this mountain. On the third day of the seventh month of 587, by the protection of that image he struck down Moriya, the enemy of the Buddha; he then carved an image of Bishamonten with his own hands and enshrined it as the guardian of this mountain. In 910 the priest Myoren, who revived the temple, built the halls and pagoda of the Bishamon hall; and when Emperor Daigo was gravely ill and recovered fully by the protection of this mountain’s Bishamonten, the temple was granted the imperial name Chogosonshi-ji, by which it has been known since. Its stated benefits are recovery from illness, quiet in the court, the guarding of the land, and long continuance of descendants.

Origin and history

In 582, at the tiger hour of the tiger day of the tiger year, Prince Shotoku perceived Bishamonten on this mountain.

On the third day of the seventh month of 587, by the protection of that image he struck down Moriya, the enemy of the Buddha. He carved an image of Bishamonten with his own hands and enshrined it as the guardian of this mountain.

In 910 the priest Myoren, who revived the temple, built the halls and pagoda of the Bishamon hall. When Emperor Daigo was gravely ill and recovered fully by the protection of this mountain’s Bishamonten, the temple was granted the imperial name Chogosonshi-ji, and has been called so ever since.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  The tiger hour of the tiger day of the tiger year

  In 582 Prince Shotoku perceived Bishamonten on this mountain at the tiger hour of the tiger day of the tiger year.

  folk tradition

• Power spotHealth & HealingProtection & SafetyFamily & Home

  A cure, and a name granted for it

  When Emperor Daigo recovered fully from grave illness by the protection of this mountain’s Bishamonten, the temple was granted the name Chogosonshi-ji.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  Moriya struck down, and an image carved by hand

  In 587 Prince Shotoku struck down Moriya by the protection of the image, then carved a Bishamonten with his own hands as guardian of the mountain.

  folk tradition

This temple’s name is a thank-you for a recovery. When Emperor Daigo was gravely ill and recovered fully by the protection of this mountain’s Bishamonten, it was granted the imperial name Chogosonshi-ji. The name itself is the record of a cure.

Several places on this list begin with illness in the imperial house. Yakushi-ji was founded by Emperor Tenmu in prayer for his empress’s recovery; Shin-Yakushi-ji by Empress Komyo in prayer for Emperor Shomu’s; Mizuma-dera in Osaka came out of Emperor Shomu’s illness too. But those are accounts of praying. This one is an account of recovering.

The temple also gives another side of a battle told elsewhere here. In 587, it says, Prince Shotoku struck down Moriya by the protection of this principal image. Shitenno-ji in Osaka transmits the victory in that same war as owing to a vow to the Four Heavenly Kings, and was built to keep that vow. One battle, and two temples crediting two different figures with the win.

The tiger runs through it from the first line. In 582, at the tiger hour of the tiger day of the tiger year — the year, the day and the hour all the same sign — Prince Shotoku perceived Bishamonten here.

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. 朝護孫子寺とは — Chogosonshi-ji (accessed 2026-08-15)
2. 信貴山朝護孫子寺 — Chogosonshi-ji (accessed 2026-08-15)