Hoenji

 Maeda Toshiie is one of the representative warlords of the Sengoku (Warring States) period. He served Oda Nobunaga and was rewarded the domain of Kaga, present-day Ishikawa prefecture.  

 Later in his life, Toshiie became as powerful as Tokugawa Ieyasu who later unified Japan, but Toshiie eventually got ill and died in Osaka at the age of 62.

 Following Toshiie’s will, his funeral ceremony was held at Houenji, and he was buried on Mt. Noda in Kanazawa.

 The Nio guardian statues were donated by Maeda Toshiie. Nios have the role to protect Buddhism. It is rare that such giant 4.54 m tall statues are placed inside of the hall.

 Nio guardian statues are usually arranged in pairs. The right guardian statue is the image of the opened mouth 'Ah' and the left guardian statue is the image of the closed mouth 'Un'.  'Ah' has the meaning of "the beginning of things" and 'Un' has the meaning of "the end of things". The 'Un' guardian statue was destroyed once by fire, but was remade. Today, you can see both powerful depictions of the Nio guardian statues.

 The main hall was designated as a registered tangible cultural property of Japan.

 The Maeda family cemetery is located behind the main hall.

 There is also the grave of the famous painter Tawaraya Sotatsu.