I'm doing a little family history project which is a little difficult because a) I can't go to Japan b) most of my family doesn't speak English c) most of my family records were destroyed in WWII.
My grandfather mentioned that the Japanese government built 12 Buddhist temples around the Kyushu coast to house soldiers in case of an attack which never came, so the temples sort of faded into obscurity as some of the several thousand temples in Japan. One of those temples, Houden-ji in Fukuoka, was his home as a child. Currently Houden-ji is surrounded by city and landlocked, however, my grandfather recalls playing by the sea when he lived there as a child. He moved to Manchuria as a child, then moved back to Japan when the Soviets invaded Manchuria. All he's told us about that time is that everything was burned and the suffering was great.
Based on the narrative, is it likely Houden-ji was burned down and rebuilt more inland? The only records kept at Houden-ji is a book of ancestry.
Where are the other temples located, or how can I find them? Any information about these at all?
I'm trying to piece together the historical narrative a bit but Google is iffy on Japanese history, plus I can't read or speak Japanese. Any Japanese historians that can help me out?
Do you mean this Hōden-ji? The website says the temple was founded by a monk Junkū in Arato-shinmachi, Fukuoka in Keichō 17 (1612) at the invitation of Kuroda Nagamasa, the lord of Fukuoka domain. Junkū also founded Shōgaku-ji right next to Hōden-ji in Genna era (1615-1624).
A 1699 map shows Hōden-ji 法傳寺 (labeled upside down) and Shōgaku-ji 正覚寺 just where they are today. In a 1890 map the coastline remains as it was, but a 1908 map shows the construction of a wharf, which made the temples farther from the sea.
The website also says the temple was burnt down by the bombing in 1945. When you compare aerial shots taken in 1939 and 1948, you can clearly see the devastation of the area.
I'm not sure where the story about 12 temples in 1510 comes from. In 1510 Japan is in the midst of the Sengoku period, and there was not really a government governing the whole of Kyushu. Perhaps he is meaning some feudal power, or Korean-style fortresses built in the 7th century, but I don't know.