Izu Kokubun-ji

is a Buddhist temple located in what is now the city of Mishima, Shizuoka, Japan. It is the modern successor of one of the provincial temples established by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794) for the purpose of promoting Buddhism as the national religion of Japan and standardising control of Yamato rule over the provinces. The foundation stones for the seven-story pagoda of original temple was designated as a National Historic Site by the Japanese government in 1956.

History
Izu Kokubun-ji was founded in 741 as the provincial temple of Izu Province. It was converted at some uncertain time to the Shingon sect, and was burned down repeatedly in the incessant battles between the forces the Takeda clan and the Odawara Hōjō clan during the Sengoku period. In the early Edo period, it converted to the Nichiren sect and was completely rebuilt; however, these buildings were all destroyed by the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake and the site was abandoned.

In 1923, the temple was rebuilt again as , and was renamed to Izu Kokubun-ji in 1954. Archaeological investigations were conducted in 1956. The foundations of the South Gate, Central Gate, Kon-dō and Kōdō (Lecture Hall) were discovered, as wells as the foundations of the surrounding cloister.  The layout of the buildings was in accordance with the standardized "Shichidō garan" formation, similar to Tōdai-ji in Nara, upon which the kokubunji temples were based. 

Outside of the main complex, eight foundation stones of the original Nara-period Kokubun-ji’s pagoda were uncovered, immediately behind the present temple’s Hondō. The foundation stones were made of tuff, and duding from the size and layout of the foundation, the pagoda was seven-stories high with a height of 60-meters. 

The temple is located approximately one kilometer south of modern Mishima Station on the Tōkaidō Main Line railway.

See also
List of Historic Sites of Japan (Shizuoka)
provincial temple

References

External links

 Mishima City home page
 Shizuoka Prefecture official site

Category:Historic Sites of Japan
Category:Mishima, Shizuoka
Category:Izu Province
Category:8th-century establishments in Japan
Category:Nara period
Category:Archaeological sites in Japan
Category:Nichiren-shū temples