Hitachi Kokubun-ji
is a Buddhist temple in Fuchū neighborhood of the city of Ishioka, Ibaraki, Japan, belonging to the Shingon-shū Chizan-ha sect, and is the provincial temple ("kokubunji") of former Hitachi Province. The ruins of the Nara period temple and the nearby nunnery have been collectively protected as a National Historic Site since 1922. In 1952, the designation was upgraded to that of a Special National Historic Site. Hitachi Kokubun-ji The Shoku Nihongi records that in 741, as the country recovered from a major smallpox epidemic, Emperor Shōmu ordered that a monastery and nunnery be established in every province. These temples had the dual purpose of promoting Buddhism as the national religion of Japan and standardising control of the Yamato rule to the provinces. The actual date the Hitachi Kokubun-ji was founded is unknown. Per the "Hitachi-Fuchū Kagami", the temple was founded in 743 and consecrated in 752 AD. The original design of the temple was a walled square compound measuring 270 meters east-to-west by 240 meters north-to-south. The compound contained a large South Gate, Middle Gate, Kondō, Lecture Hall, Cloisters, Rectory and a seven-story Pagoda, Kyōzō, Shōrō, Kuri, and dormitory. However, as the buildings of the modern temple partially overlap the