270px, Main Hall of the modern Izu Kokubun-ji 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 ...

located in what is now the city of

Mishima, Shizuoka Mishima City Hall is a city located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 109,803 in 49,323 households, and a population density of 1800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography ...

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 ...

. It is the modern successor of one of the

provincial temple were Buddhist temples established in each of the provinces of Japan by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794). History Shōmu (701 – 756?) decreed both a ''kokubun-ji'' for monks and a for nuns to be established in each ...

s established by

Emperor Shōmu was the 45th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 聖武天皇 (45)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749, during the Nara period. Traditional narrative Be ...

during the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

(710 – 794) for the purpose of promoting Buddhism as the national religion of Japan and standardising control of

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese his ...

rule over the provinces. The foundation stones for the seven-story pagoda of original temple was designated as a National Historic Site in 1956.

History

The ''

Shoku Nihongi The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the ''Six National Histories'', coming directly after the '' Nihon Shoki'' and followed by ''Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi ...

'' records that in 741, as the country recovered from a major smallpox epidemic,

ordered that a monastery and nunnery be established in every

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

, the . Izu Kokubun-ji was founded in 741 as the provincial temple of

Izu Province was a province of Japan in the area of Shizuoka Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Izu''" in . Izu bordered on Sagami and Suruga Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . The mainland portion of Izu Province, comprising the ...

; however, the precise date of its construction has not been confirmed from archaeological materials or literature. As the project for such a large-scale civil engineering project was unprecedented for relatively poor and remote Izu Province, the financial burden on the local government was also very great, and the temple was not completed until around the

Hōki was a after ''Jingo-keiun'' and before ''Ten'ō''. This period spanned the years from October 770 through January 781. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 770 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The pr ...

era (770-780). The temple was converted at some time in the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

to the Shingon sect, and was burned down repeatedly in the incessant battles between the forces the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

and the Odawara Hōjō clan during the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

. In the early

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 characteriz ...

, it converted to the

Nichiren sect Nichiren Buddhism ( ja, 日蓮仏教), also known as Hokkeshū ( ja, 法華宗, meaning ''Lotus Sect'') is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of ...

and was completely rebuilt; however, these buildings were all destroyed by the

1855 Ansei Edo earthquake The , was the third Ansei Great Earthquake, which occurred during the late-Edo period. It occurred after the 1854 Nankai earthquake, which took place about a year prior. The earthquake occurred at 22:00 local time on 11 November. It had an epi ...

and the site was abandoned. In 1923, the temple was rebuilt again as , and was renamed to Izu Kokubun-ji in 1954.

Archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s were conducted in 1956. The foundations of the South Gate, Central Gate, ''

Kondō Kondō, Kondo or Kondou (近藤 "near wisteria") is a surname prominent in Japanese culture, although it also occurs in other countries. Notable people with the surname include: * , Japanese ballet dancer * Dorinne K. Kondo, anthropologist * Kond ...

'' and ''Kōdō'' (Lecture Hall) were discovered, as wells as the foundations of the surrounding

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

, Sutra Library, Belfry and monks quarters. The layout of the buildings was in accordance with the standardized "

Shichidō garan ''Shichidō garan'' is a Japanese Buddhist term indicating the seven halls composing the ideal Buddhist temple compound. This compound word is composed of , literally meaning "seven halls", and , meaning "temple". The term is often shortened to ...

" formation, similar to

Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Nara, Nara, Japan. Though it was originally founded in the year 738 CE, Tōdai-ji was not opened until the year ...

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

, upon which the ''kokubunji'' temples were based and occupied at site approximately 145 meters from east-to-west by 181 meters from north-to-south. Outside of the main complex, eight foundation stones of the original Nara-period Kokubun-ji's

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, ...

were uncovered, immediately behind the present temple's ''Hondō''. The foundation stones were made of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

, with a height of 1.5 meters. Judging from the size and layout of the foundation, the pagoda was a seven-story structure with a height of 60-meters. The center stone with a circular depression for mounting the central pillar of the pagoda was also found; however, this was removed to the garden of

Prince Komatsu Akihito was a Japanese career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, who was a member of the Fushimi-no-miya, one of the ''shinnōke'' branches of the Imperial Family of Japan, which were eligible to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne. Biography Early ...

in Tokyo during the Meiji period and its present whereabouts is unknown. Numerous

roof tile A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...

s have been recovered from the site, with the round eaves tiles having an eight-petal lotus flow motif and the ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' for "flower" and "light" stamped on the reverse. The ''kanji'' for "flower" was a symbol for an ancient kiln located in the "Hanasaka" area of

Izunokuni 270px, Izunokuni City Hall is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 48,579 in 21,257 households and a population density of 506 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Izuno ...

city, and the ''kanji'' for "light" was a reference to the formal name for the ''kokubun-ji'' temples. Some of the excavated roof tiles are on display at the Mishima City Museum. The temple is located approximately one kilometer south of modern

Mishima Station is a railway station in the city of Mishima, Shizuoka, Japan, operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). It is also a union station with the Izuhakone Railway. The station was also a freight terminal of the Japan Freight Railwa ...

on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

railway.

References

External links

Mishima City home page
{in lang, ja Historic Sites of Japan Mishima, Shizuoka Izu Province 8th-century establishments in Japan 8th-century Buddhist temples Nara period Buddhist archaeological sites in Japan Nichiren-shū temples

History

See also

References

External links