AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Entsu Temple (円通寺, *Entsu-ji*) is a small Jōdo Shinshū house in the city of Zentsuji, in Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku. Tucked into the quiet residential quarter of Hirotacho, it belongs to the Kōshō-ji branch (*Shinshū Kōshō-ji-ha*) of the True Pure Land tradition, the school of Japanese Buddhism that grew from Shinran's teaching of faith in Amida Buddha. This is not a grand pilgrimage monument but an ordinary working temple embedded in a neighborhood—a place of local worship and remembrance rather than ticketed sightseeing.↗↗
Its real draw is where it sits. Zentsuji takes its very name from Zentsu-ji, the head temple associated with Kōbō Daishi (Kūkai), the monk born here who established Shingon Buddhism and the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage. A short walk or drive connects Entsu-ji to that far larger complex, so the small temple makes a gentle counterpoint to the pilgrimage hub: a glimpse of how ordinary Buddhist practice lives on among the city's households, alongside the famous sights.↗
Good to know
- Buddhist temple
- 2 kmfrom Zentsujicho center
- Restroom
- 3.8 / 56 reviews
- Zentsujicho
