is an Ōbaku Zen temple in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

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 ...

. Its honorary '' sangō'' prefix is .

History

The first temple built in Nagasaki was Kofukuji, built in 1623 by traders from the northern provinces of China, such as

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

and

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

. Fukusai-ji, the second temple, was founded in 1628 by members of the Nagasaki Chinese community, predominantly merchants from Southern Fujian and their families. It was built partially in response to the implementation of the anti-Christian motivated tearuke system that required citizens registered to prove their affiliation with a Buddhist temple. Temples would issue certificates that members were not Christian and, because of the long history of Christianity in Nagasaki specifically, the system was first implemented in Kyushu and Kyoto in 1638. The temple was built in part by the desire of the Chinese community to confirm that they were not Christian while maintaining a separate place of worship. The nearby Sōfuku-ji was constructed a few years later by the Northern Fujian community in 1632. The monk Mu'an (,1611-1684), the disciple of

Ingen Ingen Ryūki () (December 7, 1592 – May 19, 1673) was a Chinese poet, calligrapher, and monk of Linji Chan Buddhism from China.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Ingen" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ' ...

, became the abbot of Fukusai-ji in 1655 and remained in Nagasaki until 1660. In 1910, the main hall of the temple was designated as a

National Treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science ...

. The temple was completely destroyed in the

atomic bombing of Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...

on 9 August 1945 at 11:02 am. It was subsequently rebuilt in 1979 with an 18-meter

aluminium alloy An aluminium alloy (or aluminum alloy; see spelling differences) is an alloy in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin, nickel and zinc. There are two principal ...

statue of Kannon, the

Bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools ...

of compassion, standing atop a

spirit turtle The spirit turtle () or spirit tortoise is a turtle found in Chinese and other East Asian cultures. It is believed by East Asian cultures, like other turtles in mythology, to represent longevity (). It is said to be chief among all shelled cr ...

. Inside is a

Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. A long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular a ...

which swings over the remains of 16,500 Japanese killed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and in the atomic bombing of the city. At 25 meters, it is one of the largest Foucault pendulums in Japan. In honor of the victims of the atomic bomb, a bell is rung at 11:02 am each day.

References

Buddhist temples in Nagasaki Prefecture Obaku temples Buildings and structures in Nagasaki Buildings and structures in Japan destroyed during World War II 1628 establishments in Japan {{zen-stub