Kōtoku-in (高徳院) is a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect, in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its mountain name is Taiizan (大異山), and its common temple name is Shōjōsen-ji (清浄泉寺).
Kōtoku-in
The Great Buddha of Kamakura, cast in the 13th century
Photograph from the 1870s, by Suzuki Shinichi
Close-up with a pigeon for scale
Buddhist temples in Japan
Buddhist temples or monasteries are the most numerous, famous, and important religious buildings in Japan. The shogunates or leaders of Japan have made it a priority to update and rebuild Buddhist temples since the Momoyama period. The Japanese word for a Buddhist monastery is tera (寺), and the same kanji also has the pronunciation ji, so temple names frequently end in -dera or -ji. Another ending, -in (院), is normally used to refer to minor temples. Examples of temple names that have these suffixes are Kiyomizu-dera, Enryaku-ji and Kōtoku-in.
Higashi Hongan-ji in Kyoto
A torii at the entrance of Shitennō-ji, a Buddhist temple in Osaka
Honden of the Zennyo Ryūō shrine, inside a Shingon temple in Kyoto
A Buddhist-style gate (karamon) at Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū