Hōkō-ji
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Hōkō-ji (芳香寺?), also known as Asukadera (明日香寺?), was one of the first Buddhist temples to be built in Japan. It is located near to Hamamatsu. It was completed in 596 under the orders of Soga no Umako. According to Nihongi and the Suiko section of Fusō-ryakuki (compiled by the monk Kōen during the early thirteenth century), the records say that, on January 15, 593, when relics of Buddha were deposited inside the foundation stone under the pillar of a pagoda at Hōkō-ji, the Great Minister Soga Umako, together with a hundred people, had appeared wearing Paekche clothes, and the spectators were very much delighted. Buddhism was very new to Japan at the time, and so the first two abbots of the temple were Koreans.
During the Taikō's Sword Hunt at the end of the 16th century, the Taikō, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, claimed that all confiscated weapons would be melted down to create a new Buddha statue for the Hōkō-ji.
The current abbot of the temple is Oi Saidan Roshi.
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