Shitenno-ji

Quick facts

Address

1-11-18 Shitennoji, Tennoji-ku, Osaka

About this place

Shitenno-ji stands in Tennoji, Osaka, and was founded in 593. During the battle between Mononobe no Moriya and Soga no Umako, Prince Shotoku, who had sided with the pro-Buddhist Soga, carved images of the Four Heavenly Kings himself to turn an unfavourable position, and vowed that if he won this battle he would build a temple to enshrine them and save all people in this world. After the victory he built it to fulfil that vow. It is Japan’s first official temple of Buddhist law, and to this day it performs daily memorial rites for the dead along with prayers for recovery from illness and prosperity in business. Shotoku’s four institutions also continue: the relief, dispensary and infirmary works are carried on and developed through the temple’s social welfare foundation.

Origin and history

Shitenno-ji was founded in 593.

During the battle between Mononobe no Moriya and Soga no Umako, Prince Shotoku — who had sided with the pro-Buddhist Soga — carved images of the Four Heavenly Kings himself in order to turn an unfavourable position, and vowed that if he won this battle he would build a temple to enshrine the Four Heavenly Kings and save all the people of this world. After the victory, the temple was built to fulfil that vow.

It is Japan’s first official temple of Buddhist law. The work of the four institutions also continues: the temple runs its school foundation, teaching Buddhism within an international outlook, and carries on and develops the relief, dispensary and infirmary works through its social welfare foundation.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A vow to build if he won

  Prince Shotoku carved the Four Heavenly Kings himself and vowed that if he won the battle he would build a temple to enshrine them and save all people; after the victory he fulfilled it.

  documented history

• Power spotHealth & HealingMoney & Prosperity

  Daily prayers for health and business

  The temple performs daily memorial rites for the dead and prayers for recovery from illness and prosperity in business.

  documented history

• What people do here

  The four institutions, still running

  The relief, dispensary and infirmary works are carried on and developed through the temple’s social welfare foundation.

  documented history

This temple begins with a bargain. In the middle of a battle Shotoku carved the Four Heavenly Kings himself and vowed that, if he won, he would build a temple to house them and save everyone in this world. He won, and he built it — that is the order the temple transmits. It is a temple raised by the side of the bargain whose wish was granted.

What the temple does every day now is memorial rites and prayer. The prayers it names are for recovery from illness and prosperity in business. A vow from fourteen centuries ago and a counter open this morning stand on the same ground.

And Shotoku’s four institutions are still running. The relief, dispensary and infirmary works are carried on through the temple’s welfare foundation, and its school foundation still teaches. That may be the part of this place that has lasted longest — longer than any of the buildings.

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. 四天王寺の歴史 — Shitenno-ji (accessed 2026-08-14)
2. 四天王寺 — Shitenno-ji (accessed 2026-08-14)