Tanema-ji (種間寺)

The thirty-fourth temple of the Shikoku 88 sits among rice paddies in Haruno, Kōchi. Tradition holds that sixth-century Baekje sculptors carved its Yakushi Nyorai during a storm at sea, and that Kūkai later sowed five grains brought from Tang China within the grounds — giving the temple its name, 'Sown Seeds Temple.' Today expectant mothers receive blessed bottomless ladles here.

Tanema-ji holds three quiet origins folded into one temple. The first is a storm at sea: tradition relates that in 577 CE, Buddhist sculptors from Baekje on the Korean peninsula — returning home after working on Shitennō-ji in Naniwa — were caught in a typhoon off the Tosa coast. They took refuge near Mt. Motoo, carved a 145-centimeter seated Yakushi Nyorai as a prayer for safe passage, enshrined it on the summit, and continued their voyage when the storm calmed.

The second origin is agricultural. When Kūkai returned from his studies in Tang China in the early ninth century, he is said to have founded a temple around the Baekje-carved statue and sowed within the grounds five grains brought from China — rice, barley, millet, sorghum, and beans. The temple's name, 種間寺 (Tanema-ji), means 'Sown Seeds Temple.' In 947–957 Emperor Murakami granted the imperial seal 'Tanema,' confirming the name into official record.

The third origin, still living, is folk-Buddhist. The Yakushi Nyorai of Tanema-ji is popularly called Anzan no Yakushi — Yakushi of Safe Childbirth. Expectant mothers (or families on their behalf) receive a wooden ladle with the bottom removed, blessed at the temple, and take it home until birth. The hollow form symbolizes the wish that the baby may pass through easily, yoku tsuujiru. After a successful birth, the ladle is returned to the Kosodate (child-rearing) Kannon-dō as a thanks-offering. Walls of returned ladles line the hall — each one a quiet record of a life passed safely into the world.

The temple has no formal mountain gate, which gives the grounds an open, working-rural feel that contrasts with the more dramatic Shikoku 88 mountain temples. Pilgrims arriving from Sekkei-ji six and a half kilometers east often note this — a temple woven into rice paddies and coastal plain, modest in scale, layered in meaning.

Part of Shikoku Pilgrimage.

By temple tradition, Buddhist sculptors from the Korean kingdom of Baekje were caught in a storm off Tosa in 577 CE while returning home from work on Shitennō-ji in Naniwa. They took refuge near Mt. Motoo, carved a 145-centimeter seated Yakushi Nyorai as a prayer for safe passage, and enshrined it on the summit before continuing their voyage. Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi), returning from China in the Kōnin era (814–824), built a temple around the existing image and sowed five grains brought from Tang China within the grounds — giving the temple its name. Emperor Murakami granted the imperial seal 'Tanema' during the Tenryaku era (947–957). The temple was suppressed during the Meiji haibutsu kishaku in 1871 and rebuilt in 1880 under continuing Yamauchi (Tosa daimyō) and local patronage. Folk-Buddhist devotion to the Yakushi Nyorai as Anzan no Yakushi — Yakushi of Safe Childbirth — has shaped the temple's identity for centuries and remains active.

Shingon Buddhism, Buzan branch (Buzan-ha). The temple's formal name is Motoozan Suzakuin Tanemaji.

What thins at Tanema-ji is the boundary between thresholds. The temple's three layered origins — Baekje sculptors carving for safe sea passage, Kūkai sowing seeds for harvest, expectant mothers praying for safe birth — collapse into a single contemplative theme: passage. Through storms. Through harvest cycles. Through the birth canal. Each ladle around the Kosodate Kannon-dō marks one such passage completed.

The bottomless form of the ladle is itself a meditation. To pour through it would be to pour into nothing — but that is the point: the wish is for unimpeded flow, the baby moving through without obstruction. Stand near the wall of returned ladles and the field is not abstract. Each ladle was carried home by a particular woman or family, kept through pregnancy, returned in person after birth. The cumulative weight is not solemn; it is steady, like a long count of thank-yous.

The rice paddies surrounding the temple extend the layer. Kūkai's five grains, the seasonal harvests of Kōchi, the temple's name itself — all keep the agricultural and human registers of fertility entangled. Some readers within Shingon describe this as a vernacular form of macrocosm-microcosm correspondence: the same blessing extending across cosmos and womb.

An enshrined Yakushi Nyorai statue carved at sea by Baekje sculptors as a prayer for safe voyage (sixth century, by tradition); reorganized as a Shingon temple by Kūkai in the early ninth century with the addition of agricultural blessing through the sowing of five grains brought from Tang China.

Granted the imperial seal 'Tanema' by Emperor Murakami during the Tenryaku era (947–957). Suppressed during the Meiji haibutsu kishaku in 1871 and rebuilt in 1880. Today functions as a Shingon Buzan-school temple, an active Shikoku 88 pilgrimage stop, and a regional center for safe-childbirth devotion.

Annual blessings of bottomless ladles for safe childbirth; Yakushi Nyorai healing services; Shingon goma fire rituals; Kōbō Daishi memorial services. Local families have practiced the bottomless-ladle anzan tradition across generations.

Pilgrims complete the standard henro liturgy at the Hondō and the Daishi-dō — bell on entering, hands and mouth washed at the chōzuya, candle and three sticks of incense, fudasho-fuda placed in the box, Heart Sutra and Kōbō Daishi mantra chanted, coin offering, nōkyō stamp at the office. Expectant mothers and families request blessed bottomless ladles to take home; after a safe birth, the ladle is returned to the Kosodate Kannon-dō.

Walk the henro liturgy at both halls in the standard form, then spend a few minutes at the Kosodate Kannon-dō. The wall of returned ladles is most contemplated rather than photographed — sit or stand for a while and let the cumulative quality settle. If you carry a private wish for someone's safe passage, this is a good place to place it.

The approach from Sekkei-ji follows roughly six and a half kilometers of flat farmland west toward Haruno. Tanema-ji has no formal Niōmon, so the precinct simply opens — a working-rural quality that pilgrims often comment on. The Hondō, Daishi-dō, and Kosodate Kannon-dō face an unornamented courtyard. Free parking is available on grounds.

The ritual sequence at the Hondō and Daishi-dō follows the standard Shikoku henro form: candle, three sticks of incense, fudasho-fuda placed in the wooden box, Heart Sutra and the Kōbō Daishi mantra (Namu Daishi Henjō Kongō), coin offering, repeated at both halls. The bonshō rings on entry only — never on leaving.

The distinct stop here is the Kosodate Kannon-dō. Its walls are lined with wooden ladles whose bottoms have been removed; some are recent, others have weathered into pale gray. Each one was given to an expectant mother as a blessing object, kept at home until the birth, then returned in thanks. Pilgrims often pause here longer than the standard ritual would suggest. Photography of the wall is common, but each ladle is somebody's personal ex-voto and close-ups of recent offerings are best avoided.

For families seeking an anzan (safe-birth) blessing, the temple office can prepare a ladle on request. The arrangement is simple and personal — not a tourist transaction.

The temple sits in flat coastal-plain land in Haruno, Kōchi, near rice paddies. The grounds open without a formal gate. The Hondō and Daishi-dō stand to one side; the Kosodate Kannon-dō with its wall of bottomless ladles is on the other. The nōkyō office is between them. Free parking is available on grounds for 70 standard cars and 5 large vehicles.

Tanema-ji is read through three overlapping registers — maritime origin legend, agricultural blessing, and folk-Buddhist childbirth devotion — none of which fully exhausts the temple's identity.

Historians treat the Baekje sculptor origin as a temple legend rather than verified history, while acknowledging that sixth- and seventh-century Korean influence on early Japanese Buddhist sculpture is well-attested. Kūkai's foundation in the early ninth century is consistent with Shingon-temple establishment patterns elsewhere on Shikoku. The Yamauchi-era prosperity and Meiji-era suppression follow the standard arc of Tosa Buddhist institutions.

Local Tosa tradition strongly identifies Tanema-ji with safe childbirth; women across Kōchi Prefecture maintain the bottomless-ladle practice across generations. Within the broader Shikoku henro tradition, the temple is read as the thirty-fourth stop in the Tosa stretch — the dōjō of ascetic discipline.

Some readers interpret the temple's combination of agricultural seed-sowing (Kūkai's five grains) and human seed-passage (anzan devotion) as a quietly Shingon embodiment of macrocosm-microcosm correspondence — the same fertility blessing extending across cosmos and womb, harvest and birth.

Whether the present honzon is in fact the original sixth-century Baekje statue, as tradition holds, or a later replacement, is not conclusively documented in publicly available scholarship.

Located at 781 Akiyama, Haruno-cho, Kōchi City. By bus: from Sakaimachi terminal in Kōchi City take a Takaoka-eigyōsho bound bus and alight at Negitani-guchi (~30 minute walk to the temple). Free parking on grounds for 70 standard cars and 5 large vehicles. Walking from Temple 33 Sekkei-ji: ~6.5 km west. Walking to Temple 35 Kiyotaki-ji: ~10 km.

No shukubō at Tanema-ji itself. Standard pilgrim and tourist lodging is available in Kōchi City, about ten to fifteen minutes by car east. Walking pilgrims often stay in Kōchi City or in small inns near Tosa City to the west.

Standard Shikoku 88 etiquette. Particular care around the Kosodate Kannon-dō and its ladles; no bell-ringing on leaving.

Modest, respectful clothing. Pilgrim hakui and kongō-zue are common; nōkyōchō (stamp book) is carried by most henro pilgrims. Remove hats inside halls.

Permitted outdoors. Interior altar photography is not allowed. The ladle wall may be photographed at a respectful distance; close-ups of individual recent offerings are not appropriate.

Standard henro offerings — candle, three sticks of incense, fudasho-fuda, coin in the saisen-bako. The distinctive offering at Tanema-ji is the bottomless ladle returned in thanks after safe childbirth.

Do not ring the bonshō on leaving (Shikoku 88 convention). Quiet conduct near the Kosodate Kannon-dō. Drones and tripods generally require permission.

Continue through the atlas by country, tradition, site type, or a focused search that combines this place’s strongest context.

Sacred places within a half-day’s reach. Pilgrims often visit them together: walk one, stay for the other.

Sekkei-ji (雪蹊寺)

Kōchi, Kōchi, Kōchi, Japan

5.2 km away

Kiyotaki-ji (清滝寺)

Tosa, Tosa, Kōchi, Japan

7.6 km away

Shōryū-ji (青竜寺)

Tosa, Tosa, Kōchi, Japan

8.1 km away

Chikurin-ji (竹林寺)

Kōchi, Kōchi, Kōchi, Japan

10.3 km away

Sources consulted when researching this page. Independent verification by readers is welcome.

1. 01Tanema-ji - Wikipedia — Wikipedia contributorshigh-reliability
2. 02Motoozan Suzakuin Tanemaji – Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage — Shikoku 88 Reijokaihigh-reliability
3. 03Tanemaji – Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku — Henro.orghigh-reliability
4. 0434th temple of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Tanemaji Temple — Shikoku Pilgrimage News
5. 05Tanema-ji Temple Sokonukehishaku — TripAdvisor / local pilgrim accounts