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Gokaku-ji PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 17 July 2008

Gokaku Temple (Gokaku-ji) is a Buddhist temple located next to Naminoue Shrine in Naminoue.

Founded in 1367 and supported by King Satto and the royal family, Gokaku-ji aligned with the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Previously leveled by several fires, as well as the intense barrage of artillery during the Battle of Okinawa, the temple has been rebuilt on several occasions.

Gokaku-ji is perhaps most famously known as the home of English missionary and medical doctor Dr. Bernard Bettelheim for more than eight years (1846–54).

When Commodore Mathew Perry departed from Okinawa in July 1854, he took with him a large, metal bell that had hung in Gokuku-ji. Cast in 1456 by Imperial Official Master Metalworker Fujiwara Kunimitsu for King Sho Tai, the bell's epitaph read: "May the sound of this bell shatter illusory dreams, perfect the souls of mankind, and enable the King and his subjects to live so virtuously that barbarians will find no occasion to invade the kingdom." Perry later gave the bell to the U.S. Naval Academy, which rang it whenever Navy scored a point in Army-Navy games. The bell was returned to Okinawa nearly 130 years later.

Gokaku-ji
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