Seijuin

Seijuin enshrines Guan Yu, the hero of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and its formal name is Hakukuzan Seijuin of the Obaku school of Zen. Its ties with China are close, so it is commonly called Nankinji. In the twelfth month of Meiwa 1 (1764) the Obaku monk Daiken Osho took the temple over from Soen, a Jodo school chief priest, installed the Chinese monk Taisei Osho as its restoring founder, rebuilt the main hall and made it a branch temple of the Obaku school. The Settsu Meisho Zue Taisei shows a thatched front gate and an irimoya (hip-and-gable) main hall carrying a pair of makara, imaginary great fish. In Meiji 18 (1885) two Cantonese trading houses that had come to Osaka from Nagasaki, Rikosei and Dofutai, acted as promoters, and together with benefactors including Japanese traders they rebuilt the main hall, the worship hall and the front gate in Chinese style. The Kenkado Nikki records the busy exchanges with the Osaka man of letters Kimura Kenkado, beginning with those of the founding Zen master.

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

Osaka Prefecture's list of designated cultural properties names this place as the owner of 1. Objects are not necessarily on view.

大阪府 文化財一覧 (CC BY 4.0), current at 2024-05-01. Joined by owner name; long names are shortened to the buildings or the object.