Kanshin-ji Temple

is a Buddhist temple located in the Teramoto neighborhood of the city of Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture, in the Kansai region of Japan. It is one of the head temples of the Kōyasan Shingon-shū branch of Shingon Buddhism. The temple has several National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. Its precincts were designated a National Historic Site in 1972. and a Japan Heritage site.

==History== According to tradition, En no Gyōja founded a temple called "Unshin-ji" in the year 701. Just over a century later, in 808, Kūkai visited this temple and initiated worship of the Big Dipper, building seven cairns corresponding to the seven main stars in that constellation, which still remain in the precincts to this day. Kanshin-ji is the only temple in Japan that enshrines the Big Dipper. Again per tradition, Kūkai returned to the temple in 815 and carved a statue of Nyoirin Kannon and renamed the temple "Kanshin-ji". While there are innumerable folklore references to Kūkai visiting some location and carving a statue with his own hands, the image attributed to Kūkai at this temple is stylized as a work of the 9th century and is accompanied by four gold and bronze Buddha statues also dating to the same period, so the Nara period origins of the temple are not disputed. Per the temple own illustrated history, the "Kanshinji Engimonocho", the temple was rebuilt by order of Emperor Junna in 827, with the work begun by Kūkai's chief disciple, Jichie (Doko Daishi) and continued by his own disciple Shinshō. By the Kamakura period, it was a very large temple with more than 50 subsidiary chapels.