Kissyo-ji Temple

A Soto sect temple founded in Kan'ei 7 (1630). Jukenshi, the head priest at its founding, was on close terms with Asano Takuminokami Naganori, lord of the Ako domain, and the temple served as the Asano family's funerary temple in Osaka. In the second month of the year after the loyal retainers' raid, the 46 men led by Oishi Kuranosuke committed seppuku. The foot soldier Terasaka Kichiemon asked Kissyoji to raise a monument praying for their repose, entrusting it with the men's hair, nail clippings and chain mail along with ten ryo of silver, and the monument was put up in Genbun 4 (1739), ahead of those in Edo and Ako. All the relics of the retainers were reduced to ashes in the Osaka air raid of March 1945, and only the gravestones were left. The temple gate had been moved here from the Ako domain's warehouse residence at the north end of Joanbashi in Nakanoshima; it burned in the war and was rebuilt.

Translated from the Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City tourist listings (観光施設一覧, CC BY 4.0).