is a

Pure Land A pure land is the celestial realm of a buddha or bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism. The term "pure land" is particular to East Asian Buddhism () and related traditions; in Sanskrit the equivalent concept is called a buddha-field (Sanskrit ). Th ...

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 ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, Japan. Starting in the

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 ...

, thirteen images have been formed, each incorporating the ashes of tens of thousands of devotees. The annual burial ceremony on 21 April in turn draws tens of thousands of worshippers.

History

Isshin-ji is said to have been founded in 1185 by

Hōnen was the religious reformer and founder of the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism called . He is also considered the Seventh Jōdo Shinshū Patriarch. Hōnen became a Tendai initiate at an early age, but grew disaffected and ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

camped at the compound in 1614–15 during the

Siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

of Osaka Castle and became a patron of the temple after his victory.

Kobori Enshū was a notable Japanese artist and aristocrat in the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Biography His personal name was Masakazu (政一). In 1604, he received as inheritance a 12,000-''koku'' fief in Ōmi Province at Komuro, present Nagahama, Shiga. ...

designed the temple's tea room or ''

chashitsu ''Chashitsu'' (, "tea room") in Japanese tradition is an architectural space designed to be used for tea ceremony (''chanoyu'') gatherings. The architectural style that developed for ''chashitsu'' is referred to as the ''sukiya'' style (''suk ...

'' in this period called ''Yatsu-mado no seki'' (八つ窓の席). The popular

Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...

actor

Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII was a Japanese kabuki actor of the prestigious Ichikawa Danjūrō line. He was a ''tachiyaku'' (male roles) actor in the ''aragoto'' style, like all members of the lineage, but particularly specialized in the roles of young lovers, for which he ...

was buried in the grounds in 1854 and from that time large numbers of

urns An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

were deposited there. By the mid-1880s there were over fifty thousand and, in part due to limitations of space, in 1887 the head priest commissioned sculptors skilled in

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...

to create a statue of Amida, combining the ashes with

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...

. Bombing during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

destroyed the temple and the six statues completed by then. The Nōkotsudō was the first structure to be rebuilt, in 1957, in order to house the images; this was followed by the

Hondō Main hall is the building within a Japanese Buddhist temple compound ('' garan'') which enshrines the main object of veneration.Kōjien Japanese dictionary Because the various denominations deliberately use different terms, this single English t ...

in 1966, Guest Centre (Nissōden) in 1977, and the

Nenbutsu Nianfo (, Japanese: , , vi, niệm Phật) is a term commonly seen in Pure Land Buddhism. In the context of Pure Land practice, it generally refers to the repetition of the name of Amitābha. It is a translation of Sanskrit '' '' (or, "recolle ...

dō Dō may refer to: * Dō (architecture) * Dō (armour) * Dō (martial arts) * Dō (philosophy) ''Tao'' or ''Dao'' is the natural order of the universe, whose character one's intuition must discern to realize the potential for individual wisdom, ...

in 1992. The

main gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

, with two bronze guardian statues (

Kongōrikishi are two wrathful and muscular guardians of the Buddha standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples in East Asian Buddhism in the form of frightening wrestler-like statues. They are dharmapala manifestations of the bodhisattva Vajrap ...

), was added in 1997, and was constructed with steel, reinforced concrete, and glass. The Sanzen Butsudō of 2002, designed to resemble a church, features a large mural of Amida, Kannon, and

Seishi Seishi (written: 聖史, 正士, 正史 or 誠志) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * (born 1945), Japanese jurist * (1902–1974), Japanese physicist * (born 1974), Japanese manga artist * (1902–1981), J ...

appearing to welcome the dying. It is claimed that this painting is the largest tempera mural in the world. The hall is used for services,

weddings A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

, and as a theatre for the local experimental troupe.

''Okotsu butsu''

The phenomenon of (''lit.'' 'bone Buddhas') may be traced to a four-metre

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

statue of Jizō dating to 1700, formed by the priest Shingan (1647–1706) from crushed bones mixed with clay and dedicated at the temple of Daien-ji in

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな ...

, where it still stands. in Takamatsu and in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

have since followed Isshin-ji's example. While the first six sculptures were lost in the war, a further seven have since been formed with collection underway for the fourteenth; all are of Amida: * No. 7 (1948), from fragments of the first six statues and the ashes of a further 220,000 people * No. 8 (1957), from the ashes of 160,000 people * No. 9 (1967), from the ashes of 150,000 people * No. 10 (1977), from the ashes of 127,619 people * No. 11 (1987), from the ashes of 145,664 people * No. 12 (1997), from the ashes of 150,726 people * No. 13 (2007), from the ashes of 163,254 people

Other treasures

Treasures designated as Municipal Cultural Properties comprise an

Edo-period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterize ...

picture scroll of temple legends, eight surviving documents relating to the temple's history, and an early eighteenth-century portrait of a temple priest.

References

External links

*
Isshinji homepage
*

(local time) {{Authority control Buddhist temples in Osaka Japanese sculpture Death in Japan Hōnen Shitennō-ji 1180s establishments in Japan 12th-century Buddhist temples

History

''Okotsu butsu''

Other treasures

See also

References

External links