Kurume History Walks
Chikugo Kokubunji Ato

No.3 Remains of Chikugo-Kokubun-ji Temple 筑後国分寺跡

The remains exist in the precincts of the Kokubumachi-Hiyoshi Shrine.

Current circumstances of the remains
About 2.5 kilometers south-east of the Nishitetsu Kurume Station, the remains of the Chikugo-Kokubunji
Temple are in the present’s precinct of the Kokubumachi-Hiyoshi-jinja Shrine. Many old roof tiles and largestones (probably used as foundation stones) are still scattered there.
The area around the shrine got flourished as a shrine town until the end of World WarⅡ. It is always active
today with crowded houses, the shopping area including large stores.

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Establishment of Temple
In 741, Emperor Seimu issued theimperial edict for establishing provincial
temples (kokubun-ji) in each province ofJapan.
Animperiallycommissioned
Japanese history text (Shoku-Nihongi)
noticed Chikugo-Kokubun-ji with otherkokubun-jis of twenty-five provinces: In756, these temples got the ritual
decorations for the Buddhist service fromthe Imperial Court. We suggest that our
kokubun-ji should have had some
remarkable edifices, which wereappropriate for the imperial gift.

Edifices
The temples have principal buildingssuch as tower (tou), main hall (kondo),
lecture hall (kodo), bell-tower (joro),
scripture house (kyozo), inner gate(chumon), corridor (kairo), and southernlarge gate (nandaimon). Also, there wereresidential facilities, in which monks
lived, such as lodging house (sobo),
dining hall (jikido), office (jimusho) andkitchen (kuriya).

Excavation research of remains

Fig.1: The estimated locations of the temple ground and the buildings layout

After the first in 1952, we had
conducted forty excavations from 1968
to 1996. And we verified the remains of the lecture hall, the tower, and the roofed mud walls (northern, eastern,and southern side).
-Lecture hall
On the west side, there are the foundation stones with the grooves oriented to north and south, and with thestanchion sockets of some 65 centimeters across. Also, around these stones, the trace of foundation stones exists.
We guess that the central area of the lecture hall measured approximately 22.5 meters long and 6.6 meters wide,surrounded by the corridor of approximately 29 meters long and 13 meters wide.

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Kurume History Walks / No.3 Remains of Chikugo-Kokubun-ji Temple

-TowerAcross the road on the south side, there is thetrace of the foundation stones that makes us guessthat a building of 9 meters long on a side existed, andthat it was a tower.

-Roofed Mud Walls
The remains of the walls on the three sides
partially exist. Although the northern and southernwalls are not parallel, these are neither diagonal norat right angles with the eastern. The ground waslikely trapezium.

Foundation stones of lecture hall

Layout of buildings
The layout of the kokubun-jis were based on thatof the Todai-ji Temple, which was the grand headtemple.

Remains of tower

As for the Chikugo-Kokubun-ji, according to theabove layout and the results of the excavation, we
made a hypothesis that the main hall had existed
where there used to be reportedly a mound. Then we
estimate that that mound was a stylobate of the mainhall. The mud walls should have surrounded thoseprinciple buildings as shown on Fig.1.
The layout of the Chikuzen-Kokubun-ji is similar
to ours and was probably based on the same plans.
*Chikuzen and Chikugo are two of threeprovinces that consist of Fukuoka Prefecture.
Remains of roofed mud walls

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Kurume History Walks / No.3 Remains of Chikugo-Kokubun-ji Temple

Old roof tiles
Since ancient times, it has been famous that the old roof tiles were scattered in the Kokubunji area. Thesetiles were various: round-shaped, flat, gargoyle, ridge, etc. The round-shaped has a lotus flower pattern and had
been one of the main tiles used for the temples and the government offices. Figure 1 is the same as excavatedtiles at the Inoue-hai-ji temple ruins in Ogori City. Figure 4 is the same as the one discovered at the Dazaifu
Government remains. Besides, other (Figure 2, 3, and 5) should be original of the Chikugo Province. The flathas with arabesque. Figure 6, 7, and 8 are also unique, and have not been found in the other provinces.

FigureACCESS: 100 meters east from the bus stop “Kokubu” of the Nishitetsu Bus

Cultural Properties Protection Department of Kurume
Address 15-3 Jonan, Kurume, Fukuoka Japan 830-8520
Tel 0942-30-9225
Date of revision: March 31st, 2006
Translated in May 2020
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