Horinji Temple located in Hosoe-cho Nakagawa, Kita-ku, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Pref. is a Zen temple of Obaku Sect. The principal image of worship is Shaka Nyorai. Having become a devoted follower of the Chinese Zen master Ingen, Kondo Sadamoch, who was a Hatamoto enfeoffed the territory in Enshu province, invited a Chinese Zen monk Dokutan, a disciple of Ingen, to this place and dedicated a temple.
At the time of the establishment, the temple was flourished as a training ashram of Obaku Zen school. The seven formal temple buildings and other 20 buildings stood in the precinct of over 16 ha. In the Meiji period, the temple lost the patronage from the Kondo family and many of the buildings were collapsed in the Haibutsu Kishaku (the anti-Buddhism movement).
Both the Butsuden Hall built in 1667 and the Hojo (priest’s residence) built in 1716 are designated National Important Cultural Properties. These buildings are precious examples of the architectural styles of the late Ming Dynasty China, when the Obaku Sect was introduced into Japan.