Heiken-ji Temple (Kawasaki Daishi)

Heiken-ji, known to everyone as Kawasaki Daishi, is a head temple of the Chizan branch of Shingon Buddhism in Daishi-machi, Kawasaki Ward, Kawasaki. Its mountain name is Kongo-zan and its sub-temple name is Kongojo-in. The principal image is Yakuyoke Kobo Daishi, the "Kobo Daishi who wards off misfortune," which is unusual because it is the founder of the school himself who is enshrined as the main object of worship. The temple is a leading destination in the Kanto region for hatsumode, the first shrine or temple visit of the year.

Tradition dates the founding to 1128. According to the temple legend, a warrior named Hirama Kanenori pulled a wooden statue of Kobo Daishi out of the sea and built the temple together with the priest Sonken Shonin of Mount Koya. Belief in its power against bad luck spread in the Edo period, and the shogun Tokugawa Ienari visited in 1813, in the year before his unlucky age. In 1899 the Daishi Electric Railway, today's Keikyu Daishi Line, opened to carry worshippers, and the temple is regarded as the birthplace of the modern hatsumode custom. Most of the halls were lost in the air raids of 1945 and rebuilt after the war.

The main hall, the Daihondo, was completed in 1964 and houses the Yakuyoke Kobo Daishi; a goma fire ritual is held there every day. The Daisanmon gate, completed in 1977, holds replicas of the four heavenly kings of To-ji in Kyoto. The Fudo-do is the seventh temple of the Kanto 36 Fudo pilgrimage, and its gate was moved from Fukushima Prefecture after the war. Other buildings include the eight-sided five-story pagoda Chuko-to (1984) and the sutra repository (2004), which holds 7,240 volumes of the Qianlong edition of the Buddhist canon.

A great exhibition of the principal image is held once every ten years, most recently in May 2024. The official website lists autumn events such as a chrysanthemum show, a sutra reading service and sutra-copying sessions, and November is the month for Shichi-Go-San blessings. A festival for the 900th anniversary of the temple's founding is planned for May 1 to 10, 2027. Dates change from year to year, so check the official site before you go.

The grounds are very crowded at New Year. For a quieter visit, choose a weekday during the day. Allow about one to one and a half hours for the worship and a walk around the grounds. The temple is about an eight-minute walk from Kawasaki Daishi Station on the Keikyu Daishi Line, and direct buses run from JR Kawasaki Station during the New Year season.