is a

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 ...

temple in Uzumasa, Ukyō Ward,

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 ...

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 temple is also known by the names and , and was formerly known as , and . Kōryū-ji is said to be the oldest temple in Kyoto, having been constructed in 603 by

Hata no Kawakatsu , sometimes called Hada no Kōkatsu, was a legendary figure in Japanese folklore, who is believed to have introduced ritual Shinto dances to Japan in the sixth century. He is also considered the progenitor of a hereditary line which includes many ...

upon receiving a Buddhist statue from

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half-s ...

. Fires in 818 and 1150 destroyed the entire temple complex, but it was rebuilt several times since.Japan Tourist Info.
/ref>

Wooden statue of Bodhisattva

The temple contains a number of important pieces of cultural heritage. One of national treasures in Japan (registered on June 9, 1951), a wooden image of the Bodhisattva

Maitreya Maitreya (Sanskrit: ) or Metteyya (Pali: ), also Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha, is regarded as the future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. As the 5th and final Buddha of the current kalpa, Maitreya's teachings will be aimed at ...

sitting contemplatively in the half-lotus position, called is amongst the rare objects that are preserved and displayed at Kōryū-ji. The temple is also renowned for its , traditionally held in mid-October, but currently suspended.JNTO
/ref>

Notes

References

Daijirin is a comprehensive single-volume Japanese dictionary edited by , and first published by in 1988. This title is based upon two early Sanseidō dictionaries edited by Shōzaburō Kanazawa (金沢庄三郎, 1872–1967), ''Jirin'' (辞林 "Forest o ...

, 2nd edition *

Daijisen The is a general-purpose Japanese dictionary published by Shogakukan in 1995 and 1998. It was designed as an "all-in-one" dictionary for native speakers of Japanese, especially high school and university students. History Shogakukan intended for ...

, 1st edition *

Kōjien is a single-volume Japanese dictionary first published by Iwanami Shoten in 1955. It is widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions. As of 2007, it had sold 11 mil ...

, 5th edition * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1956). ''Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869.'' Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society.

External links

images of Hondo (1730)

images of the statuary
{{Coord, 35, 0, 55.80, N, 135, 42, 26.31, E, region:JP_scale:20000_source:jawiki, display=title Shingon Buddhism Buddhist temples in Kyoto Important Cultural Properties of Japan Maitreya Prince Shōtoku

Wooden statue of Bodhisattva

Notes

See also

References

External links