Myōhō–ji

Ryōgonzan Rengein Myōhō-ji
The Main Hall
Basic information
Location	7-4, Ōmachi 4-chome, Kamakura, Kanagawa 248-0007
Affiliation	Nichiren
Country	Japan
Website	None
Architectural description
Founder	Nichiren
Completed	1253

Ryōgonzan Renge-in Myōhō-ji (楞厳山蓮華院妙法寺^?) is a Buddhist temple of the Nichiren sect in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. It is one of a group of three built near the site in Matsubagayatsu, or the Valley of Pine Needles (松葉ヶ谷^?), where Nichiren, founder of the Buddhist sect that bears his name, is supposed to have had his hut. The temple has also close ties with Prince Morinaga and the Imperial House.

Kamakura is known for having been in the 13th century the cradle of Nichiren Buddhism. Founder Nichiren was not born there: he came from Awa Province, in today's Chiba Prefecture, and had come to Kamakura because at the time the city was the cultural and political center of the country. He built himself a hut in the Matsubagayatsu district where three temples (Ankokuron-ji, Myōhō–ji, and Chōshō-ji), have been fighting for centuries for the honor of being his sole heir. All three say they lie on the very spot where he used to have his hut, however none of them can prove its claims. The Shinpen Kamakurashi, a guide book to Kamakura commissioned by Tokugawa Mitsukuni in 1685, already mentions a strained relationship between Myōhō–ji and Chōshō-ji. However, when the two temples finally went to court, with a sentence emitted in 1787 by the shogunate's tribunals Myōhō–ji won the right to claim to be the place where Nichiren had his hermitage. It appears that Ankokuron-ji did not participate in the trial because the government's official position was that Nichiren had his first hut there, when he first arrived in Kamakura, but that he made another near Myōhō–ji after he came back from his exile in Izu in 1263.

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