is the ecclesiastic head temple of Kōyasan

Shingon file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...

Buddhism 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 gra ...

, located on ,

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...

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 name means ''Temple of the Diamond Mountain Peak''. It is part of the "

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the Kii Peninsula in Japan. Selection criteria The locations and paths for this heritage site were based on their historical and modern imp ...

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. The

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 ...

was first constructed as Seigan-ji Temple in 1593 by

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 ...

on the death of his mother, rebuilt in 1861, and given its present name in 1869. It contains many sliding screen doors painted by Kanō Tanyū (1602-1674) and members of the

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 ...

Kanō school The is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many di ...

. The temple's modern ''Banryūtei'' (蟠龍庭 rock garden) is Japan's largest (2340 square meters), with 140 granite stones arranged to suggest a pair of dragons emerging from clouds to protect the temple. The 414th abbot of Kongōbu-ji is the Reverend Kogi Kasai, who also acts as the archbishop of the Kōyasan Shingon school. At the temple, visitors can listen to the sermons of the monks and participate in ''ajikan'' meditation sessions. The term ''ajikan'' refers to a fundamental breathing and meditation method of

Shingon Buddhism Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. K ...

: "meditating on the letter A" written using the Siddhaṃ alphabet.
page on the Ajikan
with references.

Gallery

File:Kongobuji Koyasan07n3200.jpg, Approach File:Koyasan Danjogaran Fudodo.JPG, Fudōdō,
a

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 ...

File:Kongobuji Temple, Koyasan, Japan - Banryutei rock garden.JPG, Banryūtei rock garden File:Eight Attendants I Kongobuji.jpg, Eight Attendants File:Eight Attendants II Kongobuji.jpg, Eight Attendants File:Miniature Buddhist shrine Kongobuji.jpg File:Seitaka Doji Kongobuji.jpg, Seitaka Doji

References

Japan Visitor article

* Alison Main, Newell Platten, ''The Lure of the Japanese Garden'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2002, page 46. . * Dorothy Perkins, ''Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese History and Culture, from Abacus to Zori'', "Kongobuji" article, Facts on File, 1991, page 182. .

External links

Buddhist temples in Wakayama Prefecture Religious buildings and structures completed in 816 9th-century establishments in Japan National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan World Heritage Sites in Japan Historic Sites of Japan Kūkai {{Japan-religious-struct-stub

Gallery

See also

References

External links