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 ...

located in the Raikyūcho neighborhood of the city of Takahashi,

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefectur ...

, Japan. The temple's full name is . It belongs to the

Eigen-ji is a Buddhist temple in the Eigenji-Takano neighborhood of the city of Higashiōmi, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. It is the head temple of one of the 14 autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen History Eigen-ji was founded in 1361 b ...

branch of

Rinzai school The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan E ...

of Japanese Buddhism, and its ''

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 ...

'' is a statue 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 ...

. It is known for its

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

, which was designated a NationalPlace of Scenic Beauty in 1974, with the area under protection expanded in 2009 to include the Main Hall and

Shoin is a type of audience hall in Japanese architecture that was developed during the Muromachi period. The term originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but later it came to mean just a drawing room or stu ...

of the temple.

History

The early history and original name of the temple are unknown. It was revived in 1339 when Ashikaga Takauji designated it as the official

Ankoku-ji is a kind of Buddhist temple. Ankoku-ji may mean "Temple for National Pacification". There are numerous Ankoku-ji throughout Japan and the world. The ''Ankoku-ji'' system was developed under the Ashikaga shogunate, as part of its stabilizing t ...

temple dedicated to the memory of the dead of the

Genkō War The , also known as the , was a civil war fought in Japan between the Emperor Go-Daigo and the Kamakura Shogunate from 1331 to 1333. The Genkō War was named after Genkō (second), Genkō, the Japanese era name, Japanese era corresponding to the ...

of 1331-3 for

Bitchū Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan on the Seto Inland Sea, Inland Sea side of western Honshū, in what is today western Okayama Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Bizen Province, Bizen and Bingo Province, Bingo Provinces; those t ...

. The priest who came to restore the temple and to convert it to a Zen establishment was , from

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

Yuan China The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

. During the Eishō era (1504-1521), the lord of

Bitchū Matsuyama Castle , also known as Takahashi Castle, is a castle located in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. It is not to be confused with Matsuyama Castle in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture. Along with being one of only twelve remaining original castles in the co ...

, UenoYorihisa, took the tonsure at this temple, and after his death it was renamed for him, using the ''

kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. A ...

'' reading of the ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' "頼久", to become Raikyū-ji. His grave is at the temple. The temple also has the graves of three generations of the Bitchū Mimura clan]

Mimura Iechika (1517 – February 24, 1566) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. The son of Mimura Munechika, he was the lord of Matsuyama Castle, in Bitchū Province. As the influence of the Hosokawa was decreasing in the province, he joined with t ...

, who was assassinated by

Ukita Naoie was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. He was born in Bizen Province, to Ukita Okiie, a local samurai leader and head of the Ukita clan. Biography Naoie's grandfather Yoshiie was killed by Shimamura clan in 1534, Naoie narrowly es ...

in 1566, his son Mimura Motochika, who committed ''

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...

'' after his defeat by the Mōri-Ukita coalition in 1575, and his son Shobōshi-maru, who was put to death by Kobayakawa Takakage. The temple was also destroyed during this war in 1575. Although rebuilt, it was completely destroyed again by fire in 1839, during which time most of its records were lost. After the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

in 1600,

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

assigned Kobori Masatsugu as '' daikan'' to administer confiscated easternmost part of the Mōri territory in Bitchū. Since this was '' tenryō'' territory, although the ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 54 ...

'' was 14,000 ''

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 ...

'', he was not regarded as a ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

''. After his death in 1604 son Kobori Masakazu (better known as

Kobori Enshū was a notable Japanese artist and aristocrat in the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Biography His personal name was Masakazu (政一). In 1604, he received as inheritance a 12,000-''koku'' fief in Ōmi Province at Komuro, present Nagahama, Shiga. ...

) inherited the estate. At this time, Bitchū Matsuyama Castle was in ruins, so Masakazu conducted government affairs at Raikyū-ji until the caste reconstruction was completed in 1619. The garden at Raikyū-ji was designed and completed during this period. The garden combines elements of a

dry garden The or Japanese rock garden, often called a zen garden, is a distinctive style of Japanese garden. It creates a miniature stylized landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and us ...

with borrowed scenery of neighboring hills. The garden is also known as Tsurukame GardenMansfield, Stephen
Bicchu-Matsuyama. Where conflict meets contemplation
Japan Times. 30 October 2001. Sourced 7 April 2008. on account of the two stone islands in the garden named "Crane" and "Tortoise" island respectively. Since it was completed in 1609, the abbots of the temple have maintained the garden in its original form. The temple is located approximately 15 minus on foot from Bitchū Takahashi Station.

Gallery

220101 Raikyuji Takahashi Okayama pref Japan08s3.jpg, Gardens 220101 Raikyuji Takahashi Okayama pref Japan10s3.jpg, View from the Shoin Raikyuji 20180502 111143.jpg, View from the Shoin 220101 Raikyuji Takahashi Okayama pref Japan07s3.jpg, Shoin on the left Raikyuji 20180502 112529.jpg, Crane and Turtle stones Raikyuji 20180502 105917.jpg, Stone lantern Raikyuji 20180502 110437.jpg, Pond on north side of Shōin. Main Hall on the left

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raikyu-ji Buddhist temples in Okayama Prefecture Rinzai temples Bitchū Province Takahashi, Okayama Gardens in Okayama Prefecture Places of Scenic Beauty

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links