Fudai · JP

Myoshoji

Myōsōji Temple—romanised on Maps as "Myoshoji"—is a quiet Soto Zen temple sitting in the small coastal village of Fudai on Iwate's Sanriku shore. Far from the grand pilgrimage temples of inland Japan, it is a working parish temple and, notably, the only registered Buddhist temple in the whole village, making it a focal point of local spiritual life for a community of just a few thousand people. What gives the temple its deeper resonance for a visitor is a memorial tower on its grounds dedicated to the victims of the great Sanriku tsunami, a reminder of how tightly this village's history is bound to the sea and its sudden violence.