Hakkakudo (Octagonal Hall)

This unusual eight-sided hall is the only Buddhist structure that survived when the Meiji government ordered all Buddhist buildings removed from Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine in 1868. To save it, a former chief abbot had it relocated atop an ancient burial mound in 1870. Built in the 13th century and last rebuilt in the 17th, it once housed a three-meter statue of Amida Buddha, now held at Shoboji Temple nearby. The hall itself is a National Historic Site, recognized for its role within the Iwashimizu Hachimangu complex. Its irregular octagonal shape, with sides of unequal length, makes it architecturally rare in Japan.