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Kōzen-ji
is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Tendai sect located in the city of Komagane, Nagano, Japan. It is one of the five major Tendai temples in the Shinetsu region of Japan. Its main image is a ''hibutsu'' statue of Fudō Myō-ō. History The temple claims to have been founded in 860 AD by Honjō Shōnin, a disciple of Ennin; however, as all temple records were lost during the Sengoku period wars between Takeda Katsuyori and Oda Nobutada, there is no documentary evidence to back this claim. The temple enjoyed the support of the Takeda clan, and later that of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and received a 60 ''koku'' stipend for its upkeep by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. The temple was much reduced in size during the Meiji period, but many of its surviving structures date from the Edo period: - Hondō, reconstructed in 1851 * Sanmon, reconstructed in 1848 * Kyōzō, built in 1802 * Benten-dō, built in the Muromachi period, National Important Cultural Property. * Three-story Pagoda, recon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komagane, Nagano
is a city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 32,210 in 12937 households, and a population density of 190 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Komagane is located in a north-south valley of the Tenryu River between the Central and Southern Alps in south-central Nagano Prefecture at an average elevation of 676 meters. It is situated at the 220 km marker on the southern (Nagoya) branch of the Chūō Expressway, Surrounding municipalities *Nagano Prefecture ** Ina ** Iijima ** Nakagawa ** Miyada ** Agematsu ** Ōkuwa ** Ōshika Climate The city has a climate characterized by characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (Köppen climate classification ''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Komagane is 11.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1486 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.3 °C, and low ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia via the Silk Road. It is the world's fourth-largest religion, with over 520 million followers (Buddhists) who comprise seven percent of the global population. The Buddha taught the Middle Way, a path of spiritual development that avoids both extreme asceticism and hedonism. It aims at liberation from clinging and craving to things which are impermanent (), incapable of satisfying ('), and without a lasting essence (), ending the cycle of death and rebirth (). A summary of this path is expressed in the Noble Eightfold Path, a training of the mind with observance of Buddhist ethics and meditation. Other widely observed practices include: monasticism; " taking refuge" in the Buddha, the , and the ; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meiji Period
The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization by Western powers to the new paradigm of a modern, industrialized nation state and emergent great power, influenced by Western scientific, technological, philosophical, political, legal, and aesthetic ideas. As a result of such wholesale adoption of radically different ideas, the changes to Japan were profound, and affected its social structure, internal politics, economy, military, and foreign relations. The period corresponded to the reign of Emperor Meiji. It was preceded by the Keiō era and was succeeded by the Taishō era, upon the accession of Emperor Taishō. The rapid modernization during the Meiji era was not without its opponents, as the rapid changes to society caused many disaffected traditionalists from the former samurai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kamakura Period
The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans. The period is known for the emergence of the samurai, the warrior caste, and for the establishment of feudalism in Japan. During the early Kamakura period, the shogunate continued warfare against the Northern Fujiwara which was only defeated in 1189. Then, the authority to the Kamakura rulers waned in the 1190s and power was transferred to the powerful Hōjō clan in the early 13th century with the head of the clan as regent (Shikken) under the shogun which became a powerless figurehead. The later Kamakura period saw the invasions of the Mongols in 1274 and again in 1281. To reduce the amount of chaos, the Hōjō rulers decided to decentralize power by allowing two imperial lines – Northern and Southern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lanxi Daolong
Lanxi Daolong ( zh, t=蘭溪道隆, s=兰溪道隆, first=t, p=Lánxī Dàolóng, w=Lan-hsi Tao-long; ja, 蘭渓道隆, Rankei Dōryū; c. 1213-1278), born in Sichuan Province, China in 1213 A.D. ( Southern Song Dynasty), was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, idealist philosopher, and is the founder of the Kenchō-ji sect, which is a branch of the Rinzai school. Lanxi Daolong entered temple life at the age of thirteen. Due to the Mongol Conquest of the Song Dynasty in China in 1246, also driven by the new trend that Zen monks of the Southern Song Dynasty increasingly tended to voluntarily go to Japan to preach Zen Buddhism, plus the influences of his teachers and friends, he sailed to Japan to preach Zen Buddhism, and later moved to Kamakura, where he took charge of Kenchō-ji (建長寺). after having accepted the invitation of Hōjō Tokiyori (北条時頼) in 1253. Lanxi Daolongs calligraphy was famous in Japan, especially ''Rule of Zen'' (法语规则). Daolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Garden
are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden designers to suggest a natural landscape, and to express the fragility of existence as well as time's unstoppable advance. Ancient Japanese art inspired past garden designers. Water is an important feature of many gardens, as are rocks and often gravel. Despite there being many attractive Japanese flowering plants, herbaceous flowers generally play much less of a role in Japanese gardens than in the West, though seasonally flowering shrubs and trees are important, all the more dramatic because of the contrast with the usual predominant green. Evergreen plants are "the bones of the garden" in Japan. Though a natural-seeming appearance is the aim, Japanese gardeners often shape their plants, including trees, with great rigour. Japanese literatu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bakemono
and are a class of ''yōkai'', preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean ''a thing that changes'', referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting. These words are often translated as " ghost", but primarily they refer to living things or supernatural beings who have taken on a temporary transformation, and these ''bakemono'' are distinct from the spirits of the dead. However, as a secondary usage, the term ''obake'' can be a synonym for ''yūrei'', the ghost of a deceased human being. A ''bakemono's'' true form may be an animal such as a fox (''kitsune''), a raccoon dog (''bake-danuki''), a badger (''mujina''), a transforming cat (''bakeneko''), the spirit of a plant—such as a '' kodama'', or an inanimate object which may possess a soul in Shinto and other animistic traditions. ''Obake'' derived from household objects are often called ''tsukumogami''. A ''bakemono'' usually either disguises itself as a human or appears in a strange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tōtōmi Province
was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa, Suruga and Shinano Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . The origin of its name is the old name of Lake Hamana. History Tōtōmi was one of the original provinces of Japan established in the Nara period under the Taihō Code. The original capital of the province was located in what is now Iwata, and was named Mitsuke – a name which survived into modern times as Mitsuke-juku, a post station on the Tōkaidō. Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Tōtōmi was ranked as a "superior country" (上国) in terms of importance, and one of the 16 "middle countries" (中国) in terms of distance from the capital. During the early Muromachi period, Tōtōmi was ruled nominally by the Imagawa clan before coming under control of the Shiba clan._However,_by_the_Sengoku_period.html" ;"title="DF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitsuke-juku
was the twenty-eighth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in what is now the central part of the city of Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The post station received its name, which means "with a view," because it was the first place from which Mount Fuji could be seen by travelers coming from Kyoto. History Mitsuke-juku is located on the left bank of the Tenryū River, but boats generally used the nearby Ōi River, as it had a deeper channel and fewer difficult places to navigate. However, much like Shimada-juku, whenever the Ōi River overflowed, travel through the town became impossible. In addition to being a post station, Mitsuke-juku also flourished as the entry to Tōtōmi Province's and as the point at which the Tōkaidō separated with a ''hime kaidō''.Tokaido o Aruku Takayoshi Nagano. Accessed March 7, 2008. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niōmon
is the Japanese name of a Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ... gate guarded by two wooden warriors called Niō (lit. Two Kings). The gate is called Heng Ha Er Jiang (哼哈二将) in China and Geumgangmun (금강문) in Korea. The two statues are inside the two posts of the gate itself, one at the left, one at the right. Structurally, it usually is either a ''rōmon'' or a ''nijūmon'' and can measure either 5x2 or 3x2 ''Ken (architecture), bays''. It can sometimes have just one story, as in the case of Asakusa's Kaminarimon. In a five-bay gate, the figures of the two Niō are usually enshrined in the two outer bays, but can be sometimes found also in the inner ones. The statue on the right is called and has his mouth open to utter the first letter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, and were often located in or near viharas. The pagoda traces its origins to the stupa of ancient India. Chinese pagodas () are a traditional part of Chinese architecture. In addition to religious use, since ancient times Chinese pagodas have been praised for the spectacular views they offer, and many classical poems attest to the joy of scaling pagodas. Chinese sources credit the Nepalese architect Araniko with introducing the pagoda to China. The oldest and tallest pagodas were built of wood, but most that survived were built of brick or stone. Some pagodas are solid with no interior. Hollow pagodas have no higher floors or rooms, but the interior often contains an altar or a smaller pagoda, as well as a series of staircases for the vis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muromachi Period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ''shōgun'', Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kenmu Restoration (1333–1336) of imperial rule was brought to a close. The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun of this line, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was driven out of the capital in Kyoto by Oda Nobunaga. From a cultural perspective, the period can be divided into the Kitayama and Higashiyama cultures (later 15th – early 16th centuries). The early years from 1336 to 1392 of the Muromachi period are known as the '' Nanboku-chō'' or Northern and Southern Court period. This period is marked by the continued resistance of the supporters of Emperor Go-Daigo, the emperor behind the Kenmu Restoration. The Sengoku period or Warring States period, which begi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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