Kai Zenkō-ji
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Zenkō-ji (善光寺), or, to distinguish it from temples with the same name, Kai Zenkō-ji (甲斐善光寺), with the mountain name Jōgaku-zan (定額山) is a temple of the Jōdo-shū sect located in Kōfu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan.[1]
When Takeda Shingen got into trouble in the war with Uesugi Kenshin, he brought the temple treasures of Zenkō-ji in Nagano to this area and built a new temple of the same name in 1558. After 6 years of construction, the first buildings were finished in 1565, and by 1568 the temple complex had taken shape. After Shingen's death in 1573, the temple was not fully completed and the temple treasures were not preserved. The main figure became a standing Buddha (前立仏 Maedachi-butsu ), and the temple became the head of the Jōdo-shū sect in the province. The Tokugawa clan also supported the temple during the Edo Period.
In 1754, most of the complex burned down, but was rebuilt in the architectural style of the era by 1796. In 1937, it was incorporated into the city of Kōfu.
