page_title: Japanese pagoda
section_title: Hōkyōintō
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese pagoda / Stone pagodas / Hōkyōintō
caption_attribution_description: ja:時光寺
context_page_description: Pagodas in Japan are called tō, sometimes buttō or tōba and historically derive from the Chinese pagoda, itself an interpretation of the Indian stupa. Like the stupa, pagodas were originally used as reliquaries but in many cases they ended up losing this function. Pagodas are quintessentially Buddhist and an important component of Japanese Buddhist temple compounds but, because until the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868, a Shinto shrine was normally also a Buddhist temple and vice versa, they are not rare at shrines either. The famous Itsukushima Shrine, for example, has one.
  After the Meiji Restoration the word tō, once used exclusively in a religious context, came to mean also "tower" in the western sense, as for example in Eiffel tower.
  Of the Japanese pagoda's many forms, some are built in wood and are collectively known as mokutō, but most are carved out of stone
context_section_description: The hōkyōintō (宝篋印塔) is a large stone pagoda so called because it originally contained the Hōkyōin (宝篋印) dharani (陀羅尼) sūtra. It was originally used as a cenotaph for the King of Wuyue - Qian Liu in China.
  The hōkyōintō tradition in Japan is believed to have begun during the Asuka period (550–710 CE). They used to be made of wood and started to be made in stone only during the Kamakura period. It is also during this period that they started to be used as tombstones and cenotaphs.  The hōkyōintō started to be made in its present form during the Kamakura period. Like a gorintō, it is divided in five main sections representing the five elements of Japanese cosmology. The sūtra it sometimes hides contain all the pious deeds of a Tathagata Buddha, and the faithful believe that, by praying in front of the hōkyōintō, their sins will be canceled, during their lives they will be protected from disasters and after death they will go to heaven.
   Media related to Hōkyōintō at Wikimedia Commons
caption: A hōkyōintō
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