AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Kyoon Temple, or Kyōon-ji (暁音寺), is a Pure Land (Jōdo-shū) Buddhist temple tucked into the old castle-town lanes of Nanaochō in Masuda, western Shimane. Founded in 1543 and moved to its present site in 1601, it carries a quiet architectural treasure: a timber gate joined by a skirted bell tower that has become one of the most recognizable landmarks of Masuda's historic quarter.↗↗↗
What makes a stop here worthwhile is how a single temple tells the story of Masuda as a medieval fortress town. The crooked approach road in front was once a deliberate defensive bend, and the temple grounds occupy the site of a senior retainer's residence. The gate-and-bell-tower view, set against the shoulder of Nanao Mountain, is part of an officially recognized Japan Heritage landscape devoted to the culture of the Masuda clan.↗↗
A temple built on a retainer's grounds
Kyōon-ji traces its origin to 1543, in the Temmon era, and the Jōdo-shu sect register records its mountain-name as Gokōsan. Around 1601 the temple moved to where it stands today, land said to have been the residence of a Manno, one of the leading retainers of the Masuda clan who ruled this corner of old Iwami Province. The temple therefore sits at the very heart of the old samurai town, not on some remote mountainside.
