The Hexagonal Sutra Storehouse
The Hexagonal Sutra Storehouse is a hexagonal, six-sided, two-tiered pagoda-style
sutra storehouse located in the southwestern part of the temple complex
at Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture.
It was built in 1159 by Empress Toba,
Bifukumon'in, to pray for the soul of Emperor Toba.
At the time, 3,575 volumes of the complete
sutra on dark blue paper which Bifukumon'in herself had copied, were stored in
the storehouse, and since the sutras were donated along with the Arakawa Manor
or farm (present-day Momoyama-cho, Wakayama Prefecture), it is also known as
the Arakawa Sutra Storehouse.
In 1591, at the request of the monk Ogo, a
large-scale repair was carried out and the principal image, the seated statue
of the precious crowned Shaka Nyorai, was enshrined.
The current building was rebuilt in 1934.
The Konshi Kinji Issaikyo (Arakawa Sutra)
is an ornamental sutra written in gold on paper with a silver border drawn on
it. It has been designated an Important Cultural Property and is kept at the
Reihokan Museum.
It is said that if you spin the base once,
holding the handle, you will gain the same virtue as reading the Issaikyo.
Take the Nankai Rinkan bus from Koyasan
Station on the Nankai Koya Line and get off at Kondo-mae, then it is a 5-minute
walk. Free parking is available in front of the middle gate.
