Chōgaku-ji () is a Japanese Buddhist temple of the

Kōyasan Shingon-shū is a Japanese sect of Shingon Buddhism. Headquartered on Mount Kōya in Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakaya ...

sect in the city of

Tenri 280px, Tenri City Hall is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 60,890 in 29456 households, and a population density of 700 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . The city is named after t ...

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

, Japan. It is located within Yamato-Aogaki Quasi-National Park along the ''Yamanobe no michi'' (), the oldest road in Japan, at the foot of Mt. Ryūō in the

Sanuki Mountains The are a mountain range running along the southern border of Kagawa and the northern border of Tokushima prefectures on the island of Shikoku, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northe ...

. The temple is the fourth of the thirteen Buddhist sites of Yamato, and the nineteenth of the twenty-five Kansai flower temples.

History

Chōgaku-ji was built by

Kūkai , born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...

in 824. The temple's bell tower gate (''

rōmon The is one of two types of two-storied gates 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 S ...

'') is the oldest in Japan. The gate was originally built in the

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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

when the temple was founded, and is the only building that remains of the originals at Chōgaku-ji. The upper portion of the gate was rebuilt between 1086 and 1184, and the lower portion was rebuilt between 1573 and 1614. The gate is in a Kibitsu-zukuri-style with a thin

wood shingle Wood shingles are thin, tapered pieces of wood primarily used to cover roof shingle, roofs and walls of buildings to protect them from the weather. Historically roof shingle, shingles, also known as shakes, were split from straight grained, k ...

roof.

Cultural artifacts

Chōgaku-ji has four structures and five statues that have been designated as national important cultural properties. The bell tower gate was designated a national important cultural property in 1907. Jizō-in is a ''

dō Dō may refer to: * Dō (architecture) * Dō (armour) * Dō (martial arts) * Dō (philosophy) The Tao or Dao is the natural way of the universe, primarily as conceived in East Asian philosophy and East Asian religions, religion. This seeing ...

'' () that was built in 1631, and was designated a national important cultural property in 1969. Behind Jizō-in is its '' kuri'' (kitchen), which was built in 1930 and was designated a national important cultural property in 1955. Gochidō is an open pagoda built between 1275 and 1332 in the late

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, which was designated a national important cultural property in 1908. The pagoda's frame has no walls and is adorned with

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

lettering, and is supported by a large central pillar (called a ''

shinbashira The shinbashira (心柱, also 真柱 or 刹/擦 ''satsu'') is a central pillar at the core of a pagoda or similar structure. The shinbashira has long been thought to be the key to the Japanese pagoda's notable earthquake resistance, when newer co ...

'').

References

External links

(Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chogaku-ji Buddhist temples in Nara Prefecture 824 establishments 9th-century Buddhist temples