is a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

in Kawachinagano, Osaka,

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 head temple of the Shingon Omuro sect. and also known under its mountain-name as . It is the 7th temple on the and is notable for the large number of designated cultural properties.Osaka-fu no rekishi sampo henshu iinkai (publisher): ''Amanosan Kongo-ji''. In: Osaka-fu no rekishi sampo (ge). Yamakawa Shuppan, 2007. . p. 209 The precincts of the temple were designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1934 with the area under protection expanded in 2011.

History

According to temple legend, one of the 84,000 stupas built by the Indian Emperor Ashoka was on this land. The temple was founded during the Tenpyō era (729–749) through imperial request of

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 ...

by the priest Gyōki. During the early

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. ...

, Kōbō-Daishi ( Kūkai), the founder of Shingon Buddhism is said to have studied here. Amanosan kongo-ji Mikagedo

Over 400 years of its existence the temple fell into ruins. However at the end of the Heian period, the Kōyasan priest (1136-1207) was living in the area. Deeply revered and supported by Emperor Go-Shirakawa and his sister Hachijō‐in Akiko (1137–1211) he revived the temple. Akan brought an image of Kōbō-Daishi drawn by (799–865) from Kōyasan and had it installed in the newly erected Miei Hall. While holding memorial services for Kōbō-Daishi, a monastery consisting of a Main Hall (Kondō), '' tahōtō'', ''

rōmon The is one of two types of two-storied gate used in Japan (the other one being the ''nijūmon'', see photo in the gallery below). Even though it was originally developed by Buddhist architecture, it is now used at both Buddhist temples and Shin ...

'' and refectory ermerged. The current structures are from this time. It became the head temple for two generations and was known as Women's Kōyasan since, contrary to many other temples at the time, women were allowed to pray here. At the end of the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

, Kongō-ji became associated with

Emperor Go-Daigo Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 ''Go-Daigo-tennō'') (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')後醍醐天皇 (96) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional order ...

and was the base of the

Southern Court The were a set of four emperors (Emperor Go-Daigo and his line) whose claims to sovereignty during the Nanboku-chō period spanning from 1336 through 1392 were usurped by the Northern Court. This period ended with the Southern Court definitively ...

during the Nanboku-chō period. From 1354 to 1360

Emperor Go-Murakami (1328 – March 29, 1368) was the 97th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, and a member of the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō period of rival courts. He reigned from September 18, 1339, until March 29, 13 ...

set up a temporary loding at the Mani-in (摩尼院) subtemple and the refectory. During that period, three emperors of the

Northern Court The , also known as the Ashikaga Pretenders or Northern Pretenders, were a set of six pretenders to the throne of Japan during the Nanboku-chō period from 1336 through 1392. The present Imperial House of Japan is descended from the Northern Cour ...

, Kōgon, Kōmyō and Sukō, were imprisoned in the Kanzō-in (観蔵院) subtemple of Kongō-ji. Kōmyō was released in 1355, the other two in 1357. Kongoji Plan

At the end of the Nanboku-chō period, the production of rice, charcoal, lumber and most notably amano

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

contributed to the economy of the temple. There were more than 90 sub-temples at the time. Under the patronage of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

and

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, the temple flourished and owned 307

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

land at the end of the

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 ...

. That's one of the reasons that a large number of cultural properties has been preserved at the temple. The buildings were repaired in 1606 by Toyotomi Hideyori and in 1700 by decree of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. No major works happened until 2009, when the disassembly and repair of the buildings was decided. This coincided with the repair of the group of main sculptures and their subsequent designation as National Treasure in 2017. Preservation works were subsidized by 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 ...

and Kawachinagano city for a total of 1.65 billion yen. They were carried out over a period of 9 years starting in 2009.

Precinct

The precinct is entered through the '' Sanmon'' temple gate (1). It is a three ken wide tower gate (''

'') painted red, has an '' irimoya''-style roof of ''hongawara'' type and dates to the

between 1275 and 1332. Amanosan kongou-ji7(Amanoden)

Built between 1333 and 1392 as a seat for the administration, the refectory ('' Jiki-dō'') (2) is also known as . It is a 7×3 ken structure with an '' irimoya''-style ''hongawara'' type roof and a '' nokikarahafu'' gable; over the entrance in the gable end. The temple's main hall (3) is the 7×7 ken

Kon-dō 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 ...

, with a one ken step canopy and an '' irimoya''-style roof of the ''hongawara'' type. Built in 1320 it houses the temple's main object of worship:

Dainichi Nyorai Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East ...

flanked by Fudō Myōō and

Trailokyavijaya Trailokyavijaya (Vajrayana, , Japanese: Gōzanze Myō-ō; Korean: Hangsamse Myeongwang) is the King of knowledge having conquered the three worlds, one of the five kings of knowledge of Buddhism. His mission is to protect the eastern part of the ...

. The group of three sculptures has been designated as

National Treasure The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology that supports the nation as the fundame ...

In front of the main hall, there is a 3 ken treasure pagoda ('' tahōtō'') (4). Originally built during the

, 1086–1184, it is the temple's oldest structure, although it has been restored considerably in 1606–1607. It is roofed in cedar

wood shingle Wood shingles are thin, tapered pieces of wood primarily used to cover roof shingle, roofs and walls of buildings to protect them from the weather. Historically roof shingle, shingles, also known as shakes, were split from straight grained, kno ...

s. The 3×2 ken bell tower, or shōrō behind the main hall dates to the Kamakura period. It has a flared skirt like lower part (袴腰, ''hakamagoshi'') and an ''irimoya'' style ''hongawarabuki'' roof. All of the structures mentioned so far have been designated as Important Cultural Properties. Other buildings on the western end of the precinct are (from north to south), the (6), the (7) and the (8). All of these three structures have a square layout and a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

Most notable among them is the Mie Hall, an Important Cultural Property rebuilt in 1606. It is a 4×4 structure with tented roof covered with

hinoki cypress ''Chamaecyparis obtusa'' (Japanese cypress, hinoki cypress or hinoki; ja, 檜 or , ) is a species of cypress native to central Japan in East Asia, and widely cultivated in the temperate northern hemisphere for its high-quality timber and orname ...

shingles, a 1 ken step canopy at the front and a 2 ken step canopy at the back. There is a moon viewing stage under a '' karahafu'' gable attached to the eastern side of the hall, while the west is connected to the image hall.

Cultural assets

The temple houses a large number of cultural properties among which the most valuable have been designated as five

National Treasures National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

and 29 Important Cultural Properties.

National Treasures

Housed in the Kondō, the main sculptural group consists of seated statues of

, Fudō Myōō and

and is partially a work of , a disciple of

Kaikei was a Japanese Busshi (sculptor of Buddha statue) of Kamakura period, known alongside Unkei. Because many busshi of the school have a name including ''kei'' (慶), his school is called ''Kei-ha'' (Kei school). Kaikei being also called Annami-da ...

. The three sculptures were made of colored wood over a 50-year period with the Dainichi Nyorai dating to the late

, c. 1180, and the Fudō Myōō from 1234,

. They measure (Dainichi Nyorai), (Fudō Myōō) and (Trailokyavijaya) respectively. The groups appears in the Sonshō Mandala (尊勝曼荼羅) of Esoteric Buddhism. As a result of a large scale restoration and investigation in the

Heisei period The is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, ...

a writing in ink was found inside the womb of the statues, giving the date and author of Fudō Myōō. The group was subsequently, in 2017, designated as National Treasure. The temple owns a pair of National Treasure mid-16th century

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

, six-section

folding screen A folding screen, also known as pingfeng (), is a type of free-standing furniture consisting of several frames or panels, which are often connected by hinges or by other means. They have practical and decorative uses, and can be made in a variet ...

s ('' byōbu'') known as . Drawn with ink and color on paper with gold leaf background, the screens measure each. It is said that they were one of the utensils used in the esoteric kanjō (灌頂) ritual. Now in custody at the Kyoto National Museum, one of few ancient ''jokotō'' swords has been transmitted at Kongō-ji. The blade is a straight double-edged unsigned ''tsurugi'' from the early Heian period. Its handle is in the shape of a Buddhist ritual implement, a pestle like weapon with three prongs (''sanko''). The sword was for ceremonial use and together with an acommpanying black lacquer mounting from the

has been designated as a National Treasure. The blade is long, wide and has a long

tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

Two National Treasures of the '' Engishiki'', a book about Japanese laws and customs compiled between 905 and 927, belong to the temple. Both are transcriptions from 1127, but as the original is lost, they represent the oldest extant copies of the work. One, known as the Kongō-ji edition, consists of three scrolls and contains volume 12 and fragments of volumes 14 and 16. The other is a single scroll of volumes 9 and 10 which contain a register of shrines in Japan.

Important Cultural Properties

In addition to the six structures mentioned above, Kongō-ji holds a number of Important Cultural Properties in the arts and crafts category. ; Paintings * Kōbō-Daishi, color on silk, from the

* Kokūzō Bosatsu, color on silk, Kamakura period *Mandala of the Five Secrets (五秘密曼荼羅), color on silk, Kamakura period *Sonshō Mandala (尊勝曼荼羅図), color on silk, Kamakura period ;Sculpture *an

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after t ...

bronze standing image of

Kannon Bosatsu Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...

, now in custody at the Nara National Museum *

wooden seated images of the Five Great Buddhas enshrined in the ''Gobutsu-dō'' *an early

wooden seated image of

on a lotos pedestal and a halo with 37 kebutsu (化仏), manifestations of nyorai in another body. The sculpture dates to between 1172 and 1192 and is enshrined in the ''tahōtō''. It measures with its halo is high. *a pair of Kamakura period wooden standing nitennō located inside the ''rōmon'', dated to 1279. Periodo heian, incensiere, bronzo dorato, XII sec

Periodo heian, incensiere, bronzo dorato, XII sec

; Crafts * a Kamakura period

censer A censer, incense burner, perfume burner or pastille burner is a vessel made for burning incense or perfume in some solid form. They vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction, and have been in use since ancient times throughout t ...

or incense burner made by gilted copper casting, measuring (total length), with a handle width of and a container measuring (height) by (diameter). The lid is thought to be a later addition and has a design with

Japanese morning glory ''Ipomoea nil'' is a species of '' Ipomoea'' morning glory known by several common names, including picotee morning glory, ivy morning glory, and Japanese morning glory (although it is not native to Japan). It is native to the tropical Americas, ...

. The censer is in custody at the Tokyo National Museum. * a Kamakura period lacquered wooden box with gilt bronze fittings from 1320, now in custody at the Nara National Museum. The box measures and was used for ordination documents. * a Heian period small lacquer box, now in custody at the Kyoto National Museum. The box measures and is covered in lacquer with a design of sparrows in the field in makie-e technique. The inside is decorated with branches and plum blossoms. Two haramaki at Kongoji ,Kawachinagano

* a set of haramaki and hizayoroi armour from the Muromachi and Nanboku-chō periods * a Kamakura period

cupronickel Cupronickel or copper-nickel (CuNi) is an alloy of copper that contains nickel and strengthening elements, such as iron and manganese. The copper content typically varies from 60 to 90 percent. (Monel is a nickel-copper alloy that contains a minimu ...

mirror with flowers and birds design * a Kamakura period three-legged butterfly-shaped table with lotus arabesque,

raden is a Japanese termRaden.

maki-e is a Japanese lacquer decoration technique in which pictures, patterns, and letters are drawn with lacquer on the surface of lacquerware, and then metal powder such as gold or silver is sprinkled and fixed on the surface of the lacquerware. The ...

technique, now in custody at the Tokyo National Museum YouXianKu

; Written materials * a Heian period scroll of volume 8 of the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...

with gilt letters on deep blue paper from 1148 by

Fujiwara no Motohira was the second ruler of Northern Fujiwara in Mutsu Province, Japan, the son of Fujiwara no Kiyohira and the father of Fujiwara no Hidehira. Fujiwara no Motohira is credited with expansion of Hiraizumi, the residence of Northern Fujiwara. In par ...

. * one Heian period scroll of the Hōkyōin-darani sutra written with gold paint on deep blue paper * 12 volumes of the

Nirvana sutra ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

from the Kamakura period each with a postscript by

Emperor Murakami was the 62nd emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 村上天皇 (62)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Murakami's reign spanned the years from 946 to his death in 967. Biography Before he ascended to ...

from 1359 *one scroll of the Hōkyōin-darani sutra from the Heian period * one scroll from the Heian period on Fugen's practice and vows * an excess copy of the Chinese 7th century novel ''

You Xian Ku ''You Xian Ku'' (Chinese: 遊仙窟) is a famous Chinese story from the "Legends of the Tang Dynasty" (唐人傳奇) written by Zhang Zhuo (張鷟). In English, its title roughly translates as "Journey to the Fairy Grotto." The Story Zhang Zhuo ...

'' produced in 1320. This folding book measures and is noted as the oldest existing manuscript from the late Kamakura period. The end contains a description of the kunyomi transmission in reading. ; Ancient documents * a letter in Kusunoki Masashige's own handwriting expressing the desire to help in the defense of Kongō-ji which was rumoured to be attacked by the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Y ...

after the failed attempt to take rulership over from the bakufu.

Architectural notes

References

Citations

General sources

* *

External links

* {{Authority control Buddhist temples in Osaka Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Shingon temples Kawachinagano Kawachi Province 8th-century Buddhist temples Important Cultural Properties of Japan National Treasures of Japan