Chūson-ji
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Chūson-ji
is a Buddhist temple in the town of Hiraizumi in southern Iwate Prefecture, Japan. It is the head temple of the Tendai sect in Tōhoku region of northern Honshu. The temple claims it was founded in 850 by Ennin, the third chief abbot of the sect. George Sansom states Chūson-jí was founded by Fujiwara no Kiyohira in 1095. Chūson-jí was designated as a Special Historic Site in 1979 and in June 2011 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a part of the "Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi". History At the beginning of the 12th century, large-scale temple construction was carried out by Fujiwara no Kiyohira, the founder of the Northern Fujiwara clan. The temple was built to placate souls of all who died in the Former Nine Years War and the Latter Three Years' War. Kiyohira, who had been forced into bloody battles and lost his family in the war, resolved to bring peace to the region based on an ideal society following the teachings of Buddha. Per the ''Azuma Kagami' ...
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Historic Monuments And Sites Of Hiraizumi
Hiraizumi – Temples, Gardens and Archaeological Sites Representing the Buddhist Pure Land is a grouping of five sites from late eleventh- and twelfth-century Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. The serial nomination was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011, under criteria ii and vi. Hiraizumi For four generations from c.1087, when Fujiwara no Kiyohira moved his headquarters and residence from further north, until 1189, when the army of Minamoto no Yoritomo put an end to the Northern Fujiwara, Hiraizumi served as an important political, military, commercial, and cultural centre. Several major temples associated with Pure Land Buddhism were founded and endowed, but the demise of their benefactors and a series of fires contributed to their subsequent decline. When Bashō visited in 1689 he was moved to write, in Oku no Hosomichi: ''summer grass... remains of soldiers' dreams''. A series of excavations from the mid-twentieth century onwards combined with references i ...
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Iwate Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the west, and Miyagi Prefecture to the south. Morioka is the capital and largest city of Iwate Prefecture; other major cities include Ichinoseki, Ōshū, and Hanamaki. Located on Japan's Pacific Ocean coast, Iwate Prefecture features the easternmost point of Honshu at Cape Todo, and shares the highest peaks of the Ōu Mountains—the longest mountain range in Japan—at the border with Akita Prefecture. Iwate Prefecture is home to famous attractions such as Morioka Castle, the Buddhist temples of Hiraizumi including Chūson-ji and Mōtsū-ji, the Fujiwara no Sato movie lot and theme park in Ōshū, and the Tenshochi park in Kitakami known for its huge, ancient cherry trees. Iwate has the lowest population density of any prefecture ...
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Hiraizumi, Iwate
is a town located in Nishiiwai District, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 7,408 and a population density of in 2,616 households. The total area of the town was . It is noted for the Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi, which achieved UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2011. Geography Hiraizumi is the smallest municipality in Iwate Prefecture in terms of area. Located in a basin in south-central Iwate Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshu, the town is surrounded by the Kitakami Mountains. Neighboring municipalities Iwate Prefecture *Ichinoseki *Ōshū Climate Hiraizumi has a humid climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Hiraizumi is 10.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1265 mm with September as the wettest month and February as the driest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.4  ...
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Fujiwara No Motohira
was the second ruler of Northern Fujiwara in Mutsu Province, Japan, the son of Fujiwara no Kiyohira and the father of Fujiwara no Hidehira. Fujiwara no Motohira is credited with expansion of Hiraizumi, the residence of Northern Fujiwara. In particular, he founded Mōtsū-ji, and his wife built Kanjizaiō-in which was adjacent to Motsu-ji. Both sites survived, though all the buildings from the Heian period were lost, and are currently listed as constituents of a World Heritage Site, Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi. He also expanded Chūson-ji is a Buddhist temple in the town of Hiraizumi in southern Iwate Prefecture, Japan. It is the head temple of the Tendai sect in Tōhoku region of northern Honshu. The temple claims it was founded in 850 by Ennin, the third chief abbot of the sect. ..., where he was buried, along with his father and his son. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Fujiwara no, Hidehira 1105 births 1157 deaths Ōshu-Fujiwara clan Heian period Buddhists ...
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Mōtsū-ji
is a Buddhist temple of the Tendai sect in the town of Hiraizumi in southern Iwate Prefecture, Japan, and also refers to the historic area surrounding it containing the ruins of two older temples, and in a Jōdo ( Pure Land) garden. The current temple was built in the 18th century and bears no relation to the ancient temple structures that once stood here. In June 2011, Mōtsū-ji was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as "Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi". History Mōtsū-ji was founded in 850 by Ennin (Jikaku Daishi). At the time, the area was a frontier between Yamato Japan and the Emishi of the Tōhoku region of northern Honshū. In the mid-12th century, Fujiwara no Motohira, the second Northern Fujiwara lord, built a temple here called Enryū-ji. There is also a possibility that Motohira's father Fujiwara no Kiyohira built an earlier Enryū-ji on this site before he died in 1128. If so, it is supposed that this original temple was consumed by fire soon af ...
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List Of Special Places Of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites And Special Natural Monuments
To protect Japan's cultural heritage, the country's government selects through the Agency for Cultural Affairs important items and designates them as Cultural Properties under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. Designated items are classified in a number of categories, one of which is . This category includes historic locations such as shell mounds, ancient tombs, sites of palaces, sites of forts or castles, monumental dwelling houses and other sites of high historical or scientific value; gardens, bridges, gorges, mountains, and other places of great scenic beauty; and natural features such as animals, plants, and geological or mineral formations of high scientific value. The government further designates "significant" monuments classifying them in three categories: , , and . Items of particularly high significance receive higher classifications: , , and respectively. As of December 17, 2022 there are 1,038 Natural Monuments, 1881 Historic Sites, 427 Places of Sc ...
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Fujiwara No Kiyohira
was a samurai of mixed Japanese-Emishi parentage of the late Heian period (794–1185), who was the founder of the Hiraizumi or Northern Fujiwara dynasty that ruled Northern Japan from about 1100 to 1189. Biography Kiyohira was the son of Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo and a daughter of Abe no Yoritoki whose name is not known. He was born somewhere in the in 1056. His father was of the Hidesato branch of the Fujiwara clan which was known for their fighting ability. Even so, Tsunekiyo was a mid-level bureaucrat at Fort Taga in present-day Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture when he married his Emishi wife, left his position and went to live with his wife's family in present-day Iwate Prefecture. Thus, Kiyohira was born in an Emishi household in Emishi territory to a father who was considered a traitor by the Japanese authorities. Much of his early life was spent in a community at war with the Japanese central authorities. The Earlier Nine Years' War (Zenkunen War, 前九年合戦) was fought on ...
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Tōhoku Region
The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a reputation as a remote, scenic region with a harsh climate. In the 20th century, tourism became a major industry in the Tōhoku region. History Ancient & Classical period In mythological times, the area was known as Azuma (吾妻, あづま) and corresponded to the area of Honshu occupied by the native Emishi and Ainu. The area was historically the Dewa and the Michinoku regions, a term first recorded in (654). There is some variation in modern usage of the term "Michinoku". Tōhoku's initial historical settlement occurred between the seventh and ninth centuries, well after Japanese civilization and culture had become firmly established in central and southwestern Japan. The last stronghold of the indigenous Emishi on Honshu and ...
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Northern Fujiwara
The Northern Fujiwara (奥州藤原氏 ''Ōshū Fujiwara-shi'') were a Japanese noble family that ruled the Tōhoku region (the northeast of Honshū) of Japan during the 12th century as their own realm.Esashi Fujiwara no Sato
(in English)
The Ōshū Fujiwara were one of the four great clans during the — the other three were the , the , and the

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Minamoto No Yoritomo
was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his death. Yoritomo was the son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo and belonged to Seiwa Genji's prestigious Kawachi Genji family. After setting himself the rightful heir of the Minamoto clan, he led his clan against the Taira clan from his capital in Kamakura, beginning the Genpei War in 1180. After five years of war, he finally defeated the Taira clan in the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185. Yoritomo thus established the supremacy of the warrior samurai caste and the first shogunate (''bakufu'') at Kamakura, beginning the feudal age in Japan, which lasted until the mid-19th century. Early life Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto (Seiwa Genji) clan, and his official wife, Yura-Gozen, daughter of Fujiwara no Sue ...
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Azuma Kagami
is a Japanese historical chronicle. The medieval text chronicles events of the Kamakura Shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's rebellion against the Taira clan in Izokuni of 1180 to Munetaka Shinnō (the 6th shōgun) and his return to Kyoto in 1266.National Archives of JapanFeng, Wang The work is also called after the Later Hōjō family of Odawara (Kanagawa prefecture), in whose possession it used to be before it was donated to Tokugawa Ieyasu. It originally consisted of 52 chapters, but the 45th is lost. In spite of its many flaws, the document is considered the most important existing document concerning the Kamakura period. History The ''Azuma Kagami'' was compiled after 1266 under the directive of the Hōjō shikken (officially a regent to a shōgun, but the ''de facto'' ruler) and is a record in diary form of events occurring in Japan. Written in a Japanized version of classical Chinese known as , the massive work was incomprehensible to most Japanese until an edition w ...
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Muryōkō-in
is former temple in Hiraizumi in what is now southern Iwate Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan. The site is designated as both a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and a Special National Historic Site. Overview Muryōkō-in was built by Fujiwara no Hidehira, the third of the Northern Fujiwara rulers of Hiraizumi. It was designed to imitate the Phoenix Hall of Byōdō-in in Uji, south of Kyoto, but on a larger scale. The temple was described in the Kamakura period chronicle, ''Azuma Kagami''. Twice a year, the centerline of the hall was aligned with the sun setting behind Mount Kinkeisan to the west, creating an image of the Pure Land . Nothing remains of the temple today except for some foundation stones and the remnants of earthen walls. The twelfth-century garden with pond, island and ornamental stones has been reconstructed and was designated a Special Historic Site The temple area is about 240 meters east-west by 270 meters north-south. Although part of the site was de ...
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