, also known as (from its location) 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 ...

of the Tendai sect located in the town of Aishō, Shiga 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 ...

. The ''

honzon , sometimes referred to as a Gohonzon ( or ), is the enshrined main image or principal deity in Japanese Buddhism. The buddha, bodhisattva, or mandala image is located in either a temple or a household butsudan. The image can be either a statue o ...

'' of the temple is

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 ...

. The temple was founded in 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. ...

and together with Saimyō-ji in Kōra and Hyakusai-ji in Higashiōmi the temple forms a group of three temples known as . The complex includes a Main Hall that is designated as

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 ...

, which contains many statues from the Heian period onwards which are Important Cultural Properties and a garden designated as National Place of Scenic Beauty.

History

The foundation of Kongōrin-ji is not certain. According to the temple's legend, it was founded by Gyōki at the 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 ...

in 737 or 741AD, but there is no documentary evidence to corroborate this. The area in which the temple was built was under the control of the powerful Hata clan, an immigrant clan active in Japan since the

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

, and the clan was in no doubt connected with the establishment of the temple. The temple was revived by Ennin and brought into the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

sect during the

Kajō , also romanized as Kashō, was a after ''Chōji'' and before ''Tennin (era), Tennin.'' This period spanned the years from April 1106 through August 1108. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * February 6, 1106 : The new era name w ...

era (848-851) of the early

. The subsequent history of the temple is not clear, but many Buddhist statues from the late Heian period to 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 ...

. remain in the temple. During the Kamakura period, it became a center for ecumenical studies combining the Tendai and the Shingon traditions. The current

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 ...

was constructed by Sasaki Yoritsuna, the '' shugō'' of Ōmi Province, to commemorate the victory over the

Mongol invasions of Japan Major military efforts were taken by Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty in 1274 and 1281 to conquer the Japanese archipelago after the submission of the Korean kingdom of Goryeo to vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the invasion attempts are of mac ...

. In 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 ...

, the temple was damaged by

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 ...

during his attempt to destroy the power of the warrior monks of the Tendai sect at Mount Hiei and other strongholds. However, as the Main Hall and central complex of the temple was several hundred meters from its main gate, most of the temple escaped destruction. During 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 ...

, the temple went into slow decline. During the

Bakumatsu period was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji govern ...

, on January 8, 1868, Saigo Takamori of the

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, ...

and the ''

kuge The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th century until the rise of the Kamakur ...

Iwakura Tomomi was a Japanese statesman during the Bakumatsu and Meiji period. He was one of the leading figures of the Meiji Restoration, which saw Japan's transition from feudalism to modernity. Born to a noble family, he was adopted by the influential Iwa ...

met at this temple to form the '' Sekihotai'' militia towards the overthrow of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

Precincts

Main Hall

The temple's

is designated 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 ...

. It is a 7 x 7 bay structure with a roof made of cypress bark. The metal fittings on the altar are inscribed with the date of 1288, which corresponds to historical documentation that it had been erected to commemorate the victory over the

; however, during investigations conducted in 1988 when the roof was repaired, it was found that this structure was built during the Namboku-chō period, and that the metal fittings were reused from the previous structure. The inner chapel which houses the temple's ''

'' is a structure with a ''irimoya''-style roof, also with cypress bark, and which is contemporary with the main building. The ''honzon'' itself is a ''

hibutsu are Japanese Buddhist icons or statues concealed from public view. ''Hibutsu'' are generally located within Buddhist temples in shrines called . They are generally unavailable for viewing or worship, although they are brought out for specific rel ...

'' statue of

, called the "Namami Kannon", which is attributed to Gyōki. It is so roughly carved as to appear unfinished, but it belongs to a genre known as "hatchet statuary" from the latter half of the Heian period. The Hondō houses a number of statues which have been designated as Important Cultural Properties: *Amida Nyorai, seated, early Kamakura period, 141.2-cm, wooden, dated 1222 *Amida Nyorai, seated, late Heian period, 140.0 cm, wooden *Juichimen Kannon, standing, late Heian period, 172.4 cm, wooden * Fudo-Myoo, standing, wooden, dated 1211 * Bishmon-ten, standing, wooden, dated 1211 * Shi-Tenno, standing, wooden, dated 1212 * Ennin, seated, wooden, dated 1286, (now located at Tokyo National Museum) * Ennin, seated, Heian period, 84.0-cm, wooden, dated 1288

Three-story Pagoda

The temple's pagoda is located to the north, and one level higher, than the Hondō. According to the temple, it was built in 1246; however, stylistically it dates from the Namboku-chō period. The pagoda deteriorated severely 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 ...

and was allowed to fall into ruin; it was repaired and restored from 1975 to 1978, using a similar pagoda at Saimyō-ji in neighboring Kōra as reference. The pagoda has been designated a National Important Cultural Property.

Niten-mon

The temple's main gate was built in the early

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 ...

. It was originally a ''

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 ...

'', or two-story tower gate, but as with the three-story pagoda, it was allowed to fall into ruin, and the upper story was lost. It was restored in the Edo period. This structure is also designated as an Important Cultural Property.

Myōjū-in Gardens

280px, Myōjū-in Gardens The was a subsidiary chapel of Kongōrin-ji. It was destroyed in a fire in 1977, but has subsequently been rebuilt. The chapel is noteworthy for its gardens which are a National Place of Scenic Beauty The gardens date from the Momoyama period and consists of three separate gardens. The first is from the Momoyama period, with a stone bridge in the center and a Kamakura period ''

hōkyōintō A is a Japanese pagoda, so called because it originally contained the .Iwanami Kōjien Japanese dictionary A Chinese variant of the Indian stūpa, it was originally conceived as a cenotaph of the King of Wuyue – Qian Liu. Structure and funct ...

''. The second garden is from the early Edo period and has many stones, and the third is from the middle Edo period and has a pond with a stone in the middle representing a ship.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kongorin-ji Places of Scenic Beauty Buddhist temples in Shiga Prefecture National Treasures of Japan Tendai temples Aisho, Shiga