Kangi-in is a Buddhist temple in

Kumagaya is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 195,277 in 87,827 households and a population density of 1200 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kumagaya is one of the largest c ...

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

, Japan. It was founded in 1179 and is affiliated with the

Kōyasan Shingon-shū is a Japanese sect of Shingon Buddhism. Headquartered on Mount Kōya in Wakayama Prefecture, it is also the oldest and largest of the eighteen Shingon sects in Japan. The main temple is Kongōbu-ji is the ecclesiastic head temple of Koyasan ...

sect of Buddhism. The temple's Shōden Hall (聖天堂, ''shōden-dō'') was designated as a Japanese National Treasure in 1984. It is the only building in Saitama to have been designated as a national treasure.

History

The temple is said to have been built in 1179 by Saito Sanemori, a military leader under

Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123 – 11 February 1160) was the head of the Minamoto clan and a general of the late Heian period of Japanese history. His son Minamoto no Yoritomo became ''shōgun'' and founded the Kamakura shogunate, the first shogunate in the history of ...

who later fought for the

Taira clan The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divided ...

in the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo, who appointed himself ...

. He enshrined an image of the god

Kangiten Kangiten or Kankiten ( ja, 歓喜天, "god of bliss"; Sanskrit (IAST): ), also known as Binayaka (毘那夜迦; Skt. ), Ganabachi (誐那鉢底, alternatively Ganahachi or Ganahattei; Skt. ), or more commonly, Shōten or Shōden (聖天, lit. " ...

(also known as Shōten or Shōden) in the hall that became Kangi-in. When Saito was killed in the Genpei War, his second son, Sanenaga founded Kangi-in as a temple to oversee the hall where his father had placed the image. The hall is open for public worship and there is a separate hall used for the religious instruction of priests. Shōden Hall was built in the Gongen style with an inner, middle, and exterior hall for worship. After a fire destroyed an earlier structure in 1670, master carpenter Hayashi Masakiyo began work on the three halls in 1735, and his son completed the project in 1760. There are three gates leading to Kangi-in. The first gate, Kisōmon, was built in 1851 by a local craftsman, Hayashi Masamichi.

Present day

In 2010, the

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

renovated the temple at the cost of 1.3 billion

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

External links

Official website

References

Buddhist temples in Saitama Prefecture {{Buddhist-temple-stub

History

Present day

See also

External links

References