is a
Sōtō Zen 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 ...
located in the city of
Morioka,
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 Prefectur ...
,
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
main image is a statue of
Shaka Nyōrai, although the temple is more famous for its statues of the
500 ''Rakan''.
The temple was built at the seat of the
Nanbu clan in
Sannohe by the 13th chieftain of the clan, Nambu Moriyuki, in 1394. In 1601, the Nanbu clan was ordered to relocate its seat south to
Morioka Castle
is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is .
...
by the
Tokugawa shogunate, and the 27th chieftain (and first ''
daimyō'' of
Morioka Domain),
Nanbu Toshinao
was an early Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 1st ''daimyō'' of Morioka Domain in northern Japan. He was the 27th hereditary chieftain of the Nanbu clan
Toshinao was the eldest son of Nanbu Nobunao, and was born at the clan’s Tago Castle ...
relocated the temple at that time. During the
Edo period, the temple was a seminary and was the head temple of a network of 280 temples throughout the Nanbu domains. In 1869, the ''
karō'' of Morioka Domain, Narayama Sado, committed ''
seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
'' within the
Hondō of the temple at the time of the collapse of the ''
Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei'' during the
Boshin War
The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...
of the
Meiji restoration.
A notable feature of the temple is the Rakan-dō, built in 1735 and rebuilt in 1858. Its central statue
''Rushana butsu'' is reported to be made by
Kōbō-daishi. Within the Rakan-dō are statues of the 500 ''
Rakan
Rakan may refer to:
In arabic, Rakan means noble.
* Radekan, Qazvin, a village in Iran that is also called "Rakan"
*In Japanese, the word for an Arhat
In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अर ...
'', which were made in
Kyoto and later brought to Morioka. Included are representations of
Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
and
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
.
Morioka City home page
/ref>
Gallery
File:171104 Hoonji Morioka Iwate pref Japan08n.jpg, Hondō
File:171104 Hoonji Morioka Iwate pref Japan12n.jpg, Rakan-dō
File:ArhatsMorioka.JPG, 500 ''Rakan''
File:171104 Hoonji Morioka Iwate pref Japan15n.jpg, Precinct
References
External links
*
Visit Iwate
Japan Travel
Buddhist temples in Iwate Prefecture
Morioka, Iwate
Soto temples
1390s establishments in Japan
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