Koudai-ji Temple (Wan Wan Dera)

This uniquely-shaped 2-story temple gate was built in China’s Ming Dynasty style and has been known for its interesting resonating sound through a large space inside the white plastered tunnel. If you clap your hands under the tunnel-like gate, the echo sounds like “Wan Wan”, so many local people have been calling the temple “Wan Wan Dera”. There is a monument engraved with “Kunikida Doppo’s Soyu no Chi” on the right side of the gate commemorating the visit of famous novelist Doppo Kunikida, one of Meiji’s great Japanese novelists, who lived in the neighborhood and would often stop by this temple during his favorite pastime of walking.