Step out of Karumo Station on the Kaigan subway line running along the waterfront of Kobe Port and walk roughly two hundred meters through the quiet residential lanes of Higashishiriike in Nagata Ward, and you will spot the warm golden-yellow of the five-colored Buddhist flag fluttering beside a wooden signboard carved with the three Chinese characters Waraku-ji (和楽寺, Sino-Vietnamese Hòa Lạc Tự). Unlike the monumental monastery complexes of Kyoto or Nara, this temple stands modestly among long-established working-class neighborhoods of Hyōgo Prefecture, yet inside it preserves the unmistakable atmosphere of Vietnam through the scent of agarwood incense mingled with white tuberose blossoms, the deep resonance of the bronze bowl bell, and the rhythmic chanting of Vietnamese sutras each evening.
Recognized as the first Vietnamese Buddhist temple in the Kansai (Kinki) region and one of the oldest Vietnamese spiritual congregations in Japan, Hoa Lac Pagoda (Chùa Hòa Lạc) grew out of the spiritual longing of the Vietnamese community settled in Nagata Ward following the devastating Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995. From its early years as a traveling congregation in the early 2000s under the spiritual guidance of the late Most Venerable Thích Minh Tuyền, Venerable Nun Thích Tâm Trí, and younger monastics studying in Japan such as Venerable Thích Nhuận Phổ and Venerable Thích Đức Trí, the temple has become a compassionate home supporting tens of thousands of Vietnamese residents, students, and technical interns across western Japan.
IMeaning of the name Hoa Lac, Vietnamese Mahāyāna liturgy, and a sanctuary for departed souls abroad
The name Hòa Lạc (和楽, read Waraku in Japanese) carries both a classical Buddhist meaning of peaceful harmony and joy in the Dharma and a deeply symbolic tribute to cultural friendship between two nations. As explained by the founding and resident monastics, the character Hòa (和, Wa) evokes Yamato (大和, Great Wa), the ancient name of Japan, while also signifying the Six Principles of Harmony practiced by the Buddhist monastic community. The character Lạc (楽) denotes spiritual bliss while simultaneously recalling the Lạc Việt heritage of the Vietnamese people, descendants of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ. Joining Hòa and Lạc as the temple's title expresses the aspiration that Vietnamese people living in Japan may preserve their ancestral identity while living in warm harmony with the local citizens of Kobe.
The sacred interior of Hoa Lac Pagoda follows the traditional liturgical arrangement of northern-tradition Vietnamese Mahāyāna Buddhism, immediately evoking major homeland monasteries such as Quán Sứ Pagoda in Hanoi or Vĩnh Nghiêm Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City. At the center of the Main Hall (Three Jewels Hall) sits a gilded statue of Śākyamuni Buddha meditating upon a lotus throne, accompanied by the Western Pure Land Triad of Amitābha Buddha flanked by the Bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta. Side altars venerate the compassionate Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Quán Thế Âm), who hears the cries of the suffering world, and Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha (Địa Tạng Vương), who holds the pewter staff (khakkhara) and wish-fulfilling jewel to guide departed spirits through the realms of rebirth.
The most emotionally moving space for Vietnamese visitors inside Hoa Lac Pagoda is the ancestral and memorial altar (ban thờ hương linh ký tự), which blends Buddhist compassion with the Vietnamese tradition of Ancestor Veneration. Enshrined here amid curling incense smoke are hundreds of memorial tablets and portraits of Vietnamese immigrants who passed away in Kobe over the decades, alongside funerary urns of young Vietnamese technical interns, engineers, and international students who tragically lost their lives to workplace accidents or sudden illness far from home before they could reunite with their parents.
Beginning in the late 1970s and 1980s, the port city of Kobe became one of the earliest centers of Vietnamese settlement in Japan, with hundreds of families putting down roots in Nagata Ward to work in small-scale footwear manufacturing, metalworking, and food processing. On January 17, 1995, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale) devastated Nagata Ward, flattening timber neighborhoods and igniting widespread fires. Amid that catastrophe, Vietnamese and Japanese neighbors shared food, water, and shelter in the rubble, and the Vietnamese community acutely felt the need for a permanent Buddhist temple to chant memorial services for the deceased, console survivors, and anchor mutual aid. From the shared trauma of 1995, the vow to establish Hoa Lac Pagoda took root among the Buddhists of Kobe.
When researching the founding date of Hoa Lac Pagoda in Kobe, readers often encounter two different dates in community records: the early 2000s (around 2002 to 2003) and May 2012. Both dates are accurate and represent two successive milestones of the same historical development. The early 2000s (circa 2002 to 2003) mark the formation of regular Vietnamese Buddhist prayer gatherings in Kobe and the Kansai region under the spiritual patronage of the late Most Venerable Thích Minh Tuyền, Venerable Nun Thích Tâm Trí, and supportive Japanese Buddhist clergy. Meanwhile, May 5 and 6, 2012 (during the Vesak season of Buddhist Era 2556) marks the formal inauguration of the permanent temple building in Higashishiriike after Venerable Thích Nhuận Phổ, fellow monastic students, and lay Buddhists purchased and spent seven months renovating a fifty-year-old wooden house.
IIBuilding the first Vietnamese temple in Kansai across generations of monastics and laypeople
The history of Hoa Lac Pagoda reflects decades of intergenerational dedication, linking elder Vietnamese prelates with young monastic scholars studying at Japanese universities and working-class Vietnamese families in Kansai who pooled their hard-earned savings to acquire a permanent sanctuary in an expensive port city.
- 1980s to 1995Formation of the Nagata Vietnamese community and the 1995 Kobe EarthquakeFrom the 1980s onward, thousands of Vietnamese residents settle and work in the factories of Nagata Ward, Kobe. Following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on January 17, 1995, which severely damages Nagata Ward, local Vietnamese families resolve to establish a Buddhist spiritual home to pray for the victims and unite the community.
- 2002 to 2003Initiation of the Vietnamese Buddhist congregation in Kobe and KansaiIn the early 2000s, under the encouragement of the late Most Venerable Thích Minh Tuyền (1938 to 2017) alongside Venerable Nun Thích Tâm Trí and Vietnamese monastics studying in Japan, the Vietnamese Buddhist congregation in Kobe begins holding regular services for Lunar New Year, Vesak, and Vu Lan in rented halls and Japanese temples.
- Late 2011Venerable Thích Nhuận Phổ and Kansai Buddhists purchase and renovate the Nagata propertyAs the number of Vietnamese students and technical interns across Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Himeji grows rapidly, Venerable Thích Nhuận Phổ (then a master's student at Ryukoku University in Kyoto) and lay devotees raise funds to purchase a fifty-year-old two-story wooden house in Higashishiriike, Nagata Ward, renovating it by hand over seven months.
- May 5 and 6, 2012Grand inauguration of Hoa Lac Pagoda during Vesak B.E. 2556On May 5 and 6, 2012, Hoa Lac Pagoda celebrates its official inauguration and Buddha consecration ceremony witnessed by Vietnamese and Japanese monastics and hundreds of lay Buddhists across Kansai, becoming the first independent Vietnamese temple facility in western Japan.
- 2014 to 2019Venerable Thích Đức Trí succeeds as abbot and expands humanitarian outreachVenerable Thích Đức Trí assumes the role of abbot, organizing monthly Eight Precepts retreats and transforming the pagoda into a lifeline for emergency shelter, life counseling, and funeral assistance for Vietnamese citizens in distress across Kansai and Kyushu.
- 2020 to presentHumanitarian relief during the COVID-19 pandemic and repatriation of ashesDuring the COVID-19 pandemic when international flights are suspended, Hoa Lac Pagoda provides free lodging and food to displaced Vietnamese workers and students while cooperating with the Consulate General of Vietnam in Osaka to care for and repatriate the funerary urns of deceased young citizens to their families in Vietnam.
The seven-month renovation of Hoa Lac Pagoda between late 2011 and May 2012 remains a cherished memory among Kansai Buddhists. To save on the prohibitive cost of commercial contractors in Japan, monastic graduate students traveling down from Kyoto and Osaka joined dozens of Vietnamese factory workers and engineers in Kobe every weekend to haul timber, repaint walls, lay flooring, and assemble the main altar with their own hands. Longtime Japanese residents of Higashishiriike, moved by the quiet diligence and respectful demeanor of the young Vietnamese volunteers, brought hot tea and fruit to the work site and warmly welcomed the new temple into their neighborhood.
IIIAn intimate sanctuary converted from a half-century-old Japanese timber house
Unlike monumental historic monasteries of the Kansai region such as Tōdai-ji in Nara, Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, or suburban Vietnamese temples built on expansive hillsides such as Dai Nam Pagoda in Himeji and Dai An Pagoda in Saitama, Hoa Lac Pagoda stands inside a dense urban port district and was adapted from a traditional two-story Japanese wooden house (urban kominka) more than fifty years old. Combining a classic Japanese timber frame and gray tile roof with gilded Vietnamese Buddhist woodcarvings creates a space that feels simultaneously like a peaceful monastic hall and a welcoming family home.
Facing a quiet residential street in Higashishiriike, the entrance features light-colored walls, traditional Hyōgo gray roof tiles, and a carved wooden signboard reading Waraku-ji (和楽寺) alongside its Vietnamese name Chùa Hòa Lạc. Potted yellow chrysanthemums and seasonal blossoms line the small porch where visitors neatly arrange their shoes before stepping inside.
Interior partitions on the main floor were removed to create a unified worship hall lined with tatami mats and red ceremonial carpets. The gilded wooden altar, bronze incense burners, lotus lamps, bronze bowl bell, and jackfruit-wood wooden fish (mõ) were all crafted by traditional artisan villages in Vietnam and brought to Kobe to enshrine Śākyamuni Buddha and the Amitābha Triad.
Flanking the central Buddha altar are shrines dedicated to the White-Robed Avalokiteśvara (Quán Thế Âm) and Kṣitigarbha (Địa Tạng Vương). Here young Vietnamese students and technical interns kneel to pray for their parents' health back home and for perseverance amid the pressures of life abroad.
A solemn side sanctuary preserves the memorial tablets, photographs, and funerary urns of Vietnamese residents and young workers who passed away in Japan. Daily sutra chanting and incense offerings ensure that no departed soul is left untended while awaiting repatriation to Vietnam.
The upper story and rear annex house a collection of Vietnamese and Japanese Buddhist texts, a vegetarian kitchen preparing regional dishes from northern, central, and southern Vietnam during festivals, and temporary dormitory rooms offering free shelter to workers or students facing sudden hardship.
Because Hoa Lac Pagoda stands amid closely packed wooden residences in Nagata Ward, the temple strictly observes Kobe's municipal fire-safety codes and neighborhood quiet hours. During major festivals such as Lunar New Year, Vesak, or Vu Lan when hundreds of worshippers arrive from across Kansai, incense offerings inside the Main Hall are organized in small rotations, and the temple frequently rents nearby municipal community halls in Nagata Ward so that everyone can attend Dharma talks and vegetarian meals in an orderly manner that respects local neighbors.
IVLandform and Orientation
It should be noted at the outset that the site of Hoa Lac Pagoda in Higashishiriike was chosen for its proximity to the long-standing Vietnamese neighborhood in Nagata Ward and convenient access from Karumo Subway Station rather than by ancient geomantic calculation. Nevertheless, because this is a Vietnamese Mahāyāna temple situated in the classic mountain-and-sea landscape of Kobe, the library offers a comparative reading through traditional Vietnamese geomancy (phong thủy).
Viewed within the macro-topography of Kobe at coordinates 34.6545° N and 135.1578° E, the coastal strip of Nagata Ward exemplifies the classical configuration of backing onto mountains and facing the sea (tọa sơn hướng hải). Rising to the north and northwest of the temple is the granite wall of the Rokkō Mountain Range (peaking at 931 meters) together with Mount Takatori (328 meters) and Mount Hachibuse, which shelter the city from cold winter winds blowing down from the Sea of Japan and serve as a formidable rear backing (hậu chẩm) and ancestral mountain. Just 600 meters south of the temple lie the Karumo Canal, Karumo Island, and the broad waters of Kobe Port opening into Osaka Bay, forming an expansive water bright hall (minh đường thủy tụ) that receives mild maritime currents from the Seto Inland Sea.
In terms of local water courses and human convergence, Higashishiriike rests on the flat alluvial plain bordered on the west by the Shin-Minatogawa River, which curves southward into the bay as the right-hand White Tiger water arm, while the historic Hyōgo port promontory and Cape Wada to the east extend into the bay as the left-hand Azure Dragon arm, shielding the Karumo channel from rough waves. In traditional flatland urban geomancy, where human vitality gathers, spiritual qi gathers as well (nhân khí dưỡng đạo mạch): the presence of thousands of Vietnamese families living around Nagata Ward for over four decades endows this modest wooden temple with enduring warmth and cohesion.
VLiturgical calendar, Vu Lan Filial Piety Festival, and Vietnamese Lunar New Year in Kobe
Observances at Hoa Lac Pagoda harmonize the traditional Vietnamese lunar calendar with Japanese weekends and national holidays (such as Golden Week in early May and the Obon holiday in mid-August) so that Vietnamese factory workers, engineers, and students across the Kansai region can travel to Kobe to participate.
| Date | Calendar | Observance or Retreat | Activities at Hoa Lac Pagoda, Kobe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunar New Year's Eve and 1st to 15th day of the 1st Lunar Month | Vietnamese lunar calendar (paired with Japanese New Year holidays) | Lunar New Year's Eve Service, New Year Peace Prayers, and Homeland Spring Gathering | Chanting of the Universal Gateway Chapter and Medicine Buddha Sutra for national peace, picking spring blessing slips, wrapping square glutinous rice cakes (bánh chưng), and sharing traditional vegetarian Tết dishes. |
| Early May (around the 15th day of the 4th Lunar Month) | Vietnamese lunar calendar paired with Japan's Golden Week | Vesak (Buddha's Birthday) and Founding Anniversary of Hoa Lac Pagoda (May 5 and 6) | Bathing the Infant Buddha rite (Mộc dục), festive sutra chanting, Dharma talks, and commemoration of the 2012 inauguration of Kansai's first Vietnamese temple. |
| 7th Lunar Month (often celebrated in mid-August during Obon) | Vietnamese lunar calendar paired with Japan's Obon holiday | Vu Lan Filial Piety Festival and Requiem for Departed Overseas Souls | The moving Rose-Pinning Ceremony (Bông hồng cài áo) honoring living and deceased parents, accompanied by a grand requiem service for ancestors and young Vietnamese citizens who passed away in Japan. |
| January 17 annually | Gregorian solar calendar | Memorial Service for Victims of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake | Chanting of memorial sutras for the more than 6,400 Japanese and Vietnamese victims of the 1995 Kobe earthquake and prayers for safety from natural disasters. |
| Monthly Sundays and 15th day of the 8th Lunar Month | Monthly congregation schedule and Vietnamese lunar calendar | Eight Precepts One-Day Mindfulness Retreat and Children's Mid-Autumn Lantern Night | Monthly meditation, sutra study, and youth counseling, plus Mid-Autumn lion dances, star lanterns, and Vietnamese language classes for second-generation children born in Kobe. |
Every Lunar New Year and Vu Lan season, the sight of hundreds of young Vietnamese men and women dressed in flowing áo dài and gray Buddhist robes bowing with palms joined at Hoa Lac Pagoda has become a cherished cultural landmark in Nagata Ward, strengthening the bond between the Vietnamese diaspora and the port city of Kobe.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Getting there
- From central Kobe (Sannomiya Station or Shin-Nagata Station), take the Kobe Municipal Subway Kaigan Line (Coastline) to Karumo Station (苅藻駅), exit via Gate 1 or Gate 2, and walk about 200 meters (3 minutes) north to reach Hoa Lac Pagoda at 8-2-14 Higashishiriikechō.
- Coordinates
- 34.6545, 135.1578
When visiting Hoa Lac Pagoda in Nagata Ward, please remember that the temple stands inside a quiet Japanese residential neighborhood, so visitors walking from Karumo Subway Station should speak softly and avoid gathering in loud groups or blocking the narrow street outside the gate. Before stepping onto the wooden porch to enter the Main Hall, please remove your shoes and place them neatly on the racks, wear modest attire covering shoulders and knees, and follow the guidance of temple volunteers when lighting incense to ensure fire safety inside the historic wooden building.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Hoa Lac Pagoda
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Chùa Hòa Lạc (和楽寺)Everyone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
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?Quick Questions
What role does Hoa Lac Pagoda in Kobe play in the history of Vietnamese Buddhism in Japan?
Hoa Lac Pagoda (和楽寺, Waraku-ji) in Nagata Ward, Kobe is the first Vietnamese Buddhist temple established in the Kansai region (western Japan) and one of the oldest Vietnamese Buddhist congregations in the country. Growing out of prayer gatherings formed in the early 2000s after the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, its permanent sanctuary was formally inaugurated on May 5 and 6, 2012.
What is the meaning behind the name Hoa Lac Pagoda?
According to the founding and resident monastics, the character Hòa (和, Wa) represents both Buddhist harmony and Yamato (大和), the traditional name of Japan, while the character Lạc (楽) signifies spiritual joy in the Dharma as well as the Lạc Việt ancestral roots of the Vietnamese people. The name embodies cultural friendship between Vietnam and Japan.
Which Buddhist monastics founded and guided Hoa Lac Pagoda in Kobe?
The Vietnamese Buddhist congregation in Kobe took shape in the early 2000s under the spiritual encouragement of the late Most Venerable Thích Minh Tuyền and monastics such as Venerable Nun Thích Tâm Trí. In 2011 and 2012, Venerable Thích Nhuận Phổ, fellow monastic students, and Kansai lay Buddhists purchased and renovated the fifty-year-old wooden house in Nagata Ward, after which Venerable Thích Đức Trí succeeded as abbot and expanded its humanitarian mission.
Why is Hoa Lac Pagoda widely known among Vietnamese people in Japan as a sanctuary of humanitarian aid and funeral care?
Under the stewardship of Venerable Thích Đức Trí, Hoa Lac Pagoda regularly provides free emergency lodging and food for Vietnamese technical interns and students who lose their jobs or face sudden hardship. Each year the temple also conducts funeral rites, chants requiem services, and works with diplomatic authorities to return the ashes of fifteen to twenty deceased Vietnamese citizens to their families in Vietnam.
How can visitors travel by train to Hoa Lac Pagoda in Kobe?
Hoa Lac Pagoda is located at 8 Chome-2-14 Higashishiriikechō, Nagata-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. Visitors can take the JR Kobe Line or Municipal Subway to Shin-Nagata Station, transfer to the Kobe Municipal Subway Kaigan Line for two stops to Karumo Station, and walk roughly 200 meters (three minutes) north to the temple.