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Kosanji Temple combines the greatest hits of Japanese Buddhist architecture
On an island in the Inland Sea, Kosanji Temple is an architectural mash-up of Japanese Buddhism's greatest hits. Words by Steve John Powell.
Reading Time:4 minutes
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Are you ever stuck for Mother's Day gift ideas? Why not build her a temple? That's what Japanese businessman Kozo Kanemoto did.
When his mother died in 1934, Kanemoto, who had a successful steel-pipe business in Osaka, gave up his job, grew his hair and became a Buddhist priest, renaming himself Koso Kosanji. Two years later, he founded a temple in his mother's honour and devoted the next 30 years to its construction.
The fruits of his labour are tucked away on the tiny island of Ikuchijima, in the Seto Inland Sea, 18km off the coast of Onomichi, Hiroshima prefecture.
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