AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Ryufukuji is a Soto Zen temple in the rural town of Aikawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, whose crowning glory is an extraordinary 1778 mountain gate designed to evoke the Dragon Palace of Japanese legend. The gate — a town-designated cultural property — is a rare architectural gem that draws temple enthusiasts and curious day-trippers to this quiet corner of Sagamino.
Good to know
- Buddhist temple
- Under 1 kmfrom Aikawa center
- Restroom
- Official site
- 3.8 / 532 reviews
- Aikawa
A Temple Born of the Warring States Era
Ryufukuji (龍福寺) traces its founding to the closing years of the Sengoku period, when the turbulence of civil war was finally giving way to unified rule. The temple belongs to the Soto Zen school, with Shakyamuni Buddha as its principal image. Its full name — Kaizozan Ryufukuji — draws on the Avatamsaka Sutra's imagery of the ocean as a vast storehouse of treasures, a name that would later inspire the most remarkable structure on the grounds.
In its early days the mountain name was Koizumi-yama ("Small Well Mountain"), a humble local name eventually replaced by the more poetic Kaizozan ("Sea-Store Mountain"). Ryufukuji served as the head temple for other congregations in the area, including Kyushoji and Toshoji, anchoring Zen practice in the Nakatsu district for centuries.
