Shoren-ji Temple

Shorenji is a Nichiren-sect temple on the north bank of the Shorenji River, into which the Nakatsugawa once flowed. It began in Kan'ei 2 (1625), when Shoren Nippo put up a small hermitage. It once had a full complex of seven halls and was counted among the 25 temples of Osaka, but the buildings were lost to fire and earthquake, and the present main hall dates from Meiji 7 (1874). At the kawa-segaki held on 26 August each year, five-coloured streamers and gendaiki, banners bearing the daimoku, are raised, and a flotilla carrying a palanquin with a standing statue of Nichiren Shonin and a great many kyogi, thin wooden memorial tablets, goes out from the Denpo water gate into the Yodo River. While the officiating priest chants the sutra, the congregation float the kyogi on the water. The rite offers food and drink to the spirits of the dead, connected and unconnected, who suffer hunger and thirst in the realm of hungry ghosts, and in making that offering the participants also pray to complete their own Buddhist practice. It began in Kyoho 6 (1721), is counted one of the three great segaki of Japan and is designated an intangible folk cultural property of the City of Osaka.

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