Yokohama Masobyo横滨妈祖庙

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Japan · Kanagawa Prefecture · Naka Ward, Yokohama · 136 Yamashita-cho, next to Yamashita-cho Park; the former site of the Qing-dynasty consulate in Yokohama

Coordinates

35.4421, 139.6476 Map ↗

First built

Temple opened on 17 March 2006 · Built to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Yokohama, at a total construction cost of about 1.8 billion yen; its incense and image were divided from the Grand Mazu Temple in Tainan

Overview

The Yokohama Masobyo opened on 17 March 2006, dedicated primarily to Tianhou Shengmu, Mazu (Lin Moniang), and was built to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Yokohama, at a total construction cost of about 1.8 billion yen. The temple stands on the former site of the Qing-dynasty consulate in Yokohama, immediately adjacent to Yamashita-cho Park. Its incense and image were divided from the Grand Mazu Temple in Tainan, Taiwan, placing it within the Hokkien-Taiwanese system of Mazu devotion. The temple follows the traditional Chinese double-eaved form, with painting and stone carving executed largely by craftsmen from China and Taiwan, making it the largest newly built Chinese-style temple constructed by an overseas Chinese community in Japan in the twenty-first century. Standing at the opposite end of Chinatown from the Kanteibyo of 1871, it forms the "twin temples, north and south," and the two together serve as centers of faith and cultural identity for the Chinese community of Yokohama. It is a folk-religion temple of the overseas Chinese community, not an institutionalized Daoist order.

Highlights

• Opened in 2006
• Incense and image divided from the Grand Mazu Temple in Tainan
• Built on the former site of the Qing-dynasty consulate
• One of the 'twin temples, north and south' of Chinatown