is 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 ...

in the Abe area of Sakurai, Nara Prefecture,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Dating to the seventh century, it houses a sculptural group by Kaikei, and a

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century CE.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞典』� ...

within its grounds has been designated a Special Historic Site.

History

Founded as Sūke-ji in the seventh century, in 834 the monk Shinga saw a vision of a golden image of Manjusri (Monju) emerging from a cave within the temple compound. Subsequently, he dedicated a hall, the Monju-dō. The cult grew in popularity in the late Heian period and Ninshō attended the temple regularly.

Buildings

The Hondō, rebuilt several times due to fires, dates to 1665. The single

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

nagare-zukuri, shake-roofed Hakusan Jinja

Honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined ''kami'', usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a sta ...

( Sengoku period) is an Important Cultural Property. The temple has been renovated in recent years.

Monju pentad

There is a large statue group with a seven-metre high Manjusri (Monju) seated on a lion flanked by four attendants: a young boy, an aged layman, a monk, and a groom, one of a number of such groups dating to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. When the statues were dismantled for repairs in the 1930s, the signature of Kaikei, the year 1203, and the names of around fifty donors including both Kaikei and Shunjōbō Chōgen were found inscribed within Manjusri's head.

Kofun

The square-chambered Monju-in Nishi

Kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century CE.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞典』� ...

is located within the grounds of the temple. In 1952 the tomb was designated a Special Historic Site.

References

External links