I’ve lived in Nagoya for almost two years now, so I thought I’d seen pretty much the best of what there was to see. I found out on December 30th that I was wrong! I was flicking through my leaflets about Nagoya, looking for interesting places to take my mum to, when I came across Koshoji Temple: “Perhaps one of Nagoya’s finest Buddhist sites, Koshoji sits atop a hill in the Yagoto area, has a lovely graveyard, forests, a five-story pagoda and a number of impressive old buildings”. I had never heard of Koshoji before – no one had ever mentioned it to me in my many conversations about things to do in Nagoya – and so I concluded that it probably wouldn’t be all that impressive. Still, we went along to check it out…
…and all I could say was “wow!”.
The grounds of Koshoji were absolutely massive, and it was so much more than just a temple! It included many statues and monuments, lots of steps, and a huge graveyard, as promised. It was a really interesting place, and I think one of the best places I’ve been to within Nagoya itself! This temple comes high on my list of tourist recommendations, if you happen to be stopping in Nagoya. It’s easy to access, from Yagoto subway station, and I got the impression there might be more shrines and temples in the area, too, which I haven’t checked out yet.
I took lots of photos, which you can see here. Here’s a selection of them:
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Haikugirl's Japan 
Very nice article and pictures. I stayed in Nagoya during the month of April in 2008 with my Japanese brother Taka (spiritual brother). Koshoji temple is his family’s temple and his ancestors, most recently his mother Yoko, are buried there. His family is on close terms with the abbot, and he happened to be there the day we came to pay our respects at Yoko’s grave, a very nice man. I am going to link to this post at my blog “Taka’s Japan” which you can access thru a link in the side bar of my main blog “Cost of Discipleship”.
I am coming back to Nagoya either this fall or for sure the spring of 2011. I want to live in Japan permanently, and will be exploring how to do that.
Thanks for posting these photos.
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Thank you for stopping by, and thank you for linking to “Taka’s Japan”, which I found very interesting. I hope you can fulfill your dream of living in Japan permanently.
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Wow! A quick response!
I am looking forward to perusing your blog, it looks interesting and, hey, you’re living in my Japanese “home town”. If you looked at my “Taka’s Japan” blog, you can see I barely started it, and I have no plans to finish it, because it happened too long ago. I still have plenty of film footage that hasn’t been edited yet, some of it at my favorite places, Koshoji temple, the shrines at Kyoto, and the shrines and beach at Ise. Ise was very awesome. I also liked going into the highlands around Gifu and Takayama. I guess all of Japan that I’ve seen is “my favorite place,” and I don’t quite understand why I am drawn to it, but I am. It’s home…
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