, 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 ...

belonging to the

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān L ...

school of

Japanese Zen :''See also Zen for an overview of Zen, Chan Buddhism for the Chinese origins, and Sōtō, Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku for the three main schools of Zen in Japan'' Japanese Zen refers to the Japanese forms of Zen, Zen Buddhism, an orig ...

located in the city of Sakata,

Yamagata Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Yamagata Prefecture has a population of 1,079,950 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 9,325 km² (3,600 sq mi). Yamagata Prefecture borders Akita Prefecture to the north, ...

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 main image is a statue of Sho-Kannon bosatsu. The

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 ...

at this temple was designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 1996.

History

Sōkō-ji was founded in 1384 by Getsuan Ryoen (1348-1425), under the sponsorship of local warlord Satō Masanobu, a descendant of the famed warrior

Satō Tsugunobu was a Japanese warrior and the brother of Satō Tadanobu. Tsugunobu died in the Battle of Yashima, while protecting Minamoto Yoshitsune from an arrow shot of Taira no Noritsune by riding between Yoshitsune and Noritsune. Tsugunobu was buried in M ...

, who was killed at the

Battle of Yashima Battle of Yashima (屋島の戦い) was one of the battles of the Genpei War on March 22, 1185 in the Heian period. It occurred in Sanuki Province (Shikoku) which is now Takamatsu, Kagawa. Background Following a long string of defeats, the Tai ...

while defending

Minamoto no Yoshitsune was a military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. During the Genpei War, he led a series of battles which toppled the Ise-Heishi branch of the Taira clan, helping his half-brother Yoritomo conso ...

. The temple gate was completed in 1811. The temple served as the ''

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant jus ...

'' of the successive ''

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 ...

'' of Dewa-Matsuyama Domain, a subsidiary domain of

Shōnai Domain was a feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Yamagata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Tsuruoka Castle in what is now the city of Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture, and was thus also known as the . It was gov ...

. The temple garden was reconstructed in 1756 in the style of

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. ...

after most of the temple was destroyed in a fire. Also of note at the temple is a row of 120

cryptomeria ''Cryptomeria'' (literally "hidden parts") is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae, formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae. It includes only one species, ''Cryptomeria japonica'' ( syn. ''Cupressus japonica'' L ...

trees lining the entry to the temple, which are trimmed in a form of

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

art to resemble mushrooms. These trees are over 400 years old, and are a Yamagata Prefectural Natural Monument. The temple is located ten minutes by car from

Amarume Station is a junction railway station in the town of Shōnai, Yamagata, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Amarume Station is served by the Rikuu West Line and the Uetsu Main Line. The station is located 154.7 rail kilo ...

on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Uetsu Main Line The is a railway line in the Tohoku and Chubu regions of Japan. Part of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) system, it connects Niitsu Station in the city of Niigata and Akita Station in Akita. The name "Uetsu" refers to the ancient pro ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Sakata City tourist informationCultural Assets of Yamagata Prefecture
Buddhist temples in Yamagata Prefecture Sakata, Yamagata Soto Zen Dewa Province