is one of two of 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 Dòngsh� ...

school of

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

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 ...

. The other is

Eihei-ji 250px is one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, the largest single religious denomination in Japan (by number of temples in a single legal entity). Eihei-ji is located about east of Fukui in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. In ...

temple in

Fukui Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, ...

. ''

Fodor's Fodor's is a publisher of English language travel and tourism information. Fodor's Travel and Fodors.com are divisions of Internet Brands. History Founder Eugene Fodor was a keen traveler, but felt that the guidebooks of his time were borin ...

'' calls it "one of the largest and busiest Buddhist institutions in

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 n ...

". The temple was founded in 740 as a

Shingon Buddhist 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. Kn ...

temple.

Keizan Keizan Jōkin (, 1268–1325), also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi, is considered to be the second great founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. While Dōgen, as founder of Japanese Sōtō, is known as , Keizan is often referred to as . Keiza ...

, later known as Sōtō's great patriarch Taiso Jōsai Daishi, founded the present temple in 1321, when he renamed it Sōji-ji with the help and patronage of

Emperor Go-Daigo Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 ''Go-Daigo-tennō'') (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')後醍醐天皇 (96) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional orde ...

. The temple has about twelve buildings in Tsurumi, part of the port city of

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

, one designed by the architect

Itō Chūta was a Japanese architect, architectural historian, and critic. He is recognized as the leading architect and architectural theorist of early 20th-century Imperial Japan. Biography Second son of a doctor in Yonezawa, present-day Yamagata Prefect ...

History

Giving it the name circa 740,

Gyōki was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Nara period, born in Ōtori county, Kawachi Province (now Sakai, Osaka), the son of Koshi no Saichi. According to one theory, one of his ancestors was of Korean descent. Gyōki became a monk at Asuka-dera, ...

(668–749) founded the temple as a

Shingon 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. Kn ...

Buddhist temple in

Noto Noto ( scn, Notu; la, Netum) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and i ...

, a peninsula on

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island s ...

, Japan's largest island. At that time, the temple was a small chapel within the precincts of a larger

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The ''honden''Also called (本殿, meanin ...

called Morooka Hiko Jinja. By 1296, the temple had grown enough to support a full-time priest and a master

ajari is a Japanese term that is used in various schools of Buddhism in Japan, specifically Tendai and Shingon,Fischer-Schreiber, 5 in reference to a senior monk who teaches students; often abbreviated to jari. The term is a Japanese rendering of the ...

named Jōken was assigned there. The Shrine was relocated 1321 to a new estate and Jōken went with it. Jōken entrusted the former temple to

, who then changed the temple from Shingon to a Sōtō temple named Shogakuzan Sōji-ji (''ji'' means Buddhist temple in Japanese). The first official abbot, Gasan, was installed months later. However, the original Buddhist deity enshrined, Kannon Bodhisattva, was still enshrined in the temple, and for a time esoteric rituals were still carried out for the temple's patrons. Because Keizan had originally previously founded another temple, Yōkōji, a complicated rivalry existed between the two temples, leading to open conflict during the

Tokugawa 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 characterize ...

, with Sōji-ji gradually replacing Yōkōji as the head temple of Keizan and the lineage of Gikai. This ascension of Sōji-ji happened in part due to its efforts to send monks out into the countryside, and over generations these monks would often convert small, village chapels (nominally

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 ...

) into full-time temples, which in turn helped Sōji-ji's network grow. The temple was totally destroyed by fire in 1898. It was rebuilt over a period of several years and, to bring more Sōtō Zen to eastern Japan, reopened in 1911 in its present location at Tsurumi, Yokohama. Sōji-ji-soin (the "father" temple) was built on the original Noto site for monks in training. It sustained considerable damage in the 2007 Noto earthquake.

Routine

According to a mid-20th century description, the monks' day begins at 3 a.m. in summer and one hour later in winter. First they practice ''

zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technical ...

'' for two hours, then attend a service and sutra reading for 75 minutes. They later eat breakfast (rice

gruel Gruel is a food consisting of some type of cereal—such as ground oats, wheat, rye, or rice—heated or boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk rather than eaten. Historically, gruel has been a ...

, tea and

pickles Pickles may refer to: Dogs * Pickles (dog) (died 1967), a dog that found the stolen World Cup trophy in 1966 * Pickles (pickleball), a dog often cited as the name origin for the sport of pickleball * Mr. Pickles, the titular demonic dog in ...

). Then for 90 minutes they clean the buildings and the grounds. At 8 a.m. they study Chinese poetry and the writings of ''Zenjis'' like Dōgen and Keizan. At 11 a.m. they go to the

Butsuden 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 ...

where they perform services or read

sūtras ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...

for visitors. They eat rice and vegetables for lunch and then from 1 to 3 p.m. they return to perform services for visitors. They eat rice gruel for dinner at 5 p.m. From 6 to 8 p.m. the head monk teaches them sutra reading, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. they return to practice ''zazen'', and then go to sleep at 9 p.m.

Abbot

The

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

is called '' Zenji'' ( en, Master of Zen), and oversees 200

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

s and novices in residence. Egawa Shinzan ''Zenji'' holds the positions of Abbot of Sōji-ji Soin Training Monastery, administrator of Sōji-ji and Soji-ji Soin, and vice rector, resident priest, assistant head priest, and head priest of related organizations.

Temple compound

The core of the temple consists of seven structures forming the so-called ''

Shichidō garan ''Shichidō garan'' is a Japanese Buddhist term indicating the seven halls composing the ideal Buddhist temple compound. This compound word is composed of , literally meaning "seven halls", and , meaning "temple". The term is often shortened t ...

''. The ''

sanmon A , also called , is the most important gate of a Japanese Zen Buddhist temple, and is part of the Zen '' shichidō garan'', the group of buildings that forms the heart of a Zen Buddhist temple.JAANUS It can be often found in temples of other de ...

'' gate, built in 1969, is, according to the temple's pamphlet the largest such structure in Japan.

(1867–1954) designed the ''Daiso-dō'' or Hattō, which honors Keizan and other founders, and the ''Senbutsujo'', the hall used as the monks' main training center and to

ordain Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform var ...

monks. The Sanshōkaku, constructed in 1990 and equipped with computers and other modern amenities, is a visitors' center for practice and workshops for lay persons aimed at fulfilling Keizan ''Zenji's'' vow to help all sentient beings. The ''

'' (Buddha Hall) enshrines a statue of

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

(Shaka Nyorai). The ''Shōkurō'' contains the '' bonshō'' bell, the drum, the cloud gong or '' umpan'', and the wooden drum (''moppan''), used to signal the monks' daily routine. The ''Hōkō-dō'' is used for memorial rites to ancestors of lay persons, for whom the monks perform services. Among outreach activities, the Sōji Gakuen Academy is a school system where the students study the Buddha's teaching. The academy has a kindergarten, middle school, high school, and university. Sōji also has child care and a hospital. Sōjiji Koshakudai 2009

The Koshakudai holds the monks' living quarters.

School

Tsurumi University is a private university in Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. Tsurumi University traces its origin to Tsurumi Girls' High School, which was established in 1925. In 1953, Tsurumi Girls' Junior College was established, and it was chartered as ...

Affiliates

Komazawa University , abbreviated as 駒大 ''Komadai'', is one of the oldest universities in Japan. Its history starts in 1592, when a seminary was established to be a center of learning for the young monks of the Sōtō sect, one of the two main Zen Buddhist tr ...

* Tohoku Fukushi University *

Aichi Gakuin University is a private university in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It has campuses at the city of Nisshin, Aichi, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya and Meijō Park in Nagoya. The predecessor of the university, a Soto Zen college, was founded in 1876, and it was chartered as ...

Komazawa Women's University is a private university in Inagi, Tokyo, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1927, and it was chartered as a university in 1993. External links Official website Universities and colleges established in 1927 Private univ ...

Tomakomai Komazawa University is a private university in Tomakomai, Hokkaido is a city and port in Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the largest city in the Iburi Subprefecture, and the fourth largest city in Hokkaido. As of 29 February 2012, it had an esti ...

* Komazawa Junior College * Komazawa Senior High School * Komazawa Iwamizawa Senior High School * Komazawa Tomakomai Senior High School

Branches

* Sōjiji-soin (総持寺祖院) in

Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,140,573 (31 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,186 km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to ...

* Hōgen-ji (法源寺), also known as the Sōjiji Hokkaidō Betsuin (総持寺北海道別院), in Matsumae

In the United States

* Zenshuji Soto Mission

Gallery

File:Sōji-ji-entrance.jpg, The entrance File:Sojiji DaisoDo 01.jpg, Daisō-dō or Hattō, the main training center, designed by

File:Sojiji zafus.jpg, On a raised platform some of the monks' ''

zafu A ''zafu'' ( ja, 座蒲, ) or ''putuan'' (, pronounced ) is a round cushion. Although also a utilitarian accessory, it is best known for its use in zazen Zen meditation. Name Although ''zafu'' is often translated as "sewn seat" in American En ...

'', used for

File:Sunriseatsojiji.jpg, Sunrise 2007 File:Sojiji Bodhidharma painting.jpg, A painting of

Bodhidharma Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to a 17th century apo ...

in the reception hall File:Sojiji Meditation Hall 衆寮.jpg, The meditation hall, or

References

External links

Sojiji web site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soji-Ji Religious organizations established in the 8th century 1898 disestablishments Religious organizations established in 1911 Soto temples Buddhist temples in Kanagawa Prefecture Keizan Religious buildings and structures completed in 740