is a

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 ...

Buddhist temple in the Baba neighborhood of the city of

Ōtsu 270px, Ōtsu City Hall is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,991 in 153458 households and a population density of 740 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Ōtsu is ...

Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the north ...

, Japan. 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 Shō-Kannon Bosatsu. It contains the grave of the late

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 Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

warlord

Kiso Yoshinaka , , or Lord Kiso was a general from the late Heian period of Japanese history. A member of the Minamoto clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo was his cousin and rival during the Genpei War between the Minamoto and the Taira clans. Yoshinaka was born in Musas ...

and the

Edo 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 character ...

poet

Matsuo Basho Matsuo may refer to: Places * Matsuo, Chiba * Matsuo, Iwate * Mount Matsuo * Matsuo Station (disambiguation) * Siege of Matsuo * Matsuo mine Other uses *Matsuo (name) Matsuo (written: 松尾) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the name inc ...

. Its precincts were designated a National Historic Site in 1967.

History

The foundation or original name of this temple is unknown. The name of Gichū-ji is a ''

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 ...

'' pronunciation of the name "Yoshinaka". Kiso Yoshinaka was the cousin of

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent ('' shikken'') after h ...

and became a rival in the struggle to seize control of the country from the

Taira clan The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divi ...

in the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo, who appointed hi ...

. He was killed at the

Battle of Awazu Minamoto no Yoshinaka made his final stand at Awazu, after fleeing from his cousins' armies, which confronted him after he attacked Kyoto, burning the Hōjūjiden, and kidnapping Emperor Go-Shirakawa. During the pursuit he was joined by his fo ...

Ōmi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Ōmi was ranked as one of the 13 "great countri ...

(in what is now part of Ōtsu) and was buried in a mound planted with a

Japanese persimmon ''Diospyros kaki'', the Oriental persimmon, Chinese persimmon, Japanese persimmon or kaki persimmon, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Diospyros''. Although its first botanical description was not published until 1780,Publis ...

near the battlefield. His consort,

Tomoe Gozen Tomoe Gozen (, ) was an onna-musha from the late Heian period of Japanese history. She served Minamoto no Yoshinaka during the Genpei War and was a part of the conflict that led to the first shogunate. Her family had strong affiliations with Yos ...

was captured and taken to

Kanagawa is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanagaw ...

, where she was forced to marry one of Yoritomo's generals,

Wada Yoshimori was an early Kamakura period military commander. A ''gokenin'' (retainer) of the Kamakura shogunate, he was the first director ('' bettō'') of the Samurai-dokoro. Life Wada Yoshimori was born as the son of Miura Yoshiaki and grandson of Sug ...

. She was the mother of

Asahina Yoshihide or Asaina Yoshihide, also known as , was a Japanese warrior of the early 13th century, and the son of Wada Yoshimori and Tomoe Gozen.Kusumoto (2002:170) His name (also written with the characters ) comes from , where he lived at one time. Thoug ...

. After the Wada clan was destroyed in a coup in 1203, she escaped to

Fukumitsu, Toyama was a town located in Nishitonami District, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 20,056 and a density of 119.35 persons per km². The total area was 168.05 km². On November 1, 2004, Fukumitsu, along wi ...

, where she became a nun. Her subsequent history is uncertain. She is said to have lived to the age of 91 years, and her grave is in what is now

Nanto, Toyama is a city in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. It is in a mountainous area in the south-west corner of the prefecture just north of Gifu Prefecture. It is home to the Gokayama UNESCO World Heritage site. , the city had an estimated population of 51,669 ...

, although other purported graves are located in

Yokosuka, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The c ...

, Kiso, Nagano and

Jōetsu, Niigata is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 189,430, in 76,461 households with a population density of 190 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Jōetsu borders the Sea of Japan and ...

. Per the undocumented history of Gichū-ji, Tomoe Gozen came to this location after she had become a nun, and established a small hermitage which she named the "hermitage of the nameless woman", and lived at this location until her death. This hermitage became Gichū-ji and eventually a stone ''

hōkyōintō A is a Japanese pagoda, so called because it originally contained the .Iwanami Kōjien Japanese dictionary A Chinese variant of the Indian stūpa, it was originally conceived as a cenotaph of the King of Wuyue – Qian Liu. Structure and func ...

'' monument was erected in place of the burial mound. The temple fell into ruin during the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by ...

, but was revived by the ''

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The po ...

'' of Ōmi Province,

Rokkaku Yoshikata was a samurai head of the Rokkaku clan during Japan's Sengoku period. He was ''shugo'' (governor) and later ''daimyō'' of an area of southern Ōmi province, he served as castellan of Kannonji Castle. He later became a Buddhist monk, under th ...

in 1553, becoming a subsidiary for

Mii-dera , formally called , is a Buddhist temple in Japan located at the foot of Mount Hiei, in the city of Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture. It is a short distance from both Kyoto, and Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. The head temple of the Jimon sect ...

in the

. The

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, ...

master

often stayed at this temple, and in his will, requested that his tomb be placed next to Yoshinaka's tomb after his death. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the temple was in danger of extinction, but it was purchased by a private philanthropist, who also established a foundation for its subsequent maintenance and upkeep.

Gallery

Gichuji Kiso-Yoshinaka haka.jpg, Grave of Kiso Yoshinaka Stele - Gichuji - Otsu, Shiga - DSC06820.JPG, Grave of Tomoe Gozen Grave of Basho - Gichuji - Otsu, Shiga - DSC06828.JPG, Grave of Matsuo Basho The temple has a small museum with displays concerning Kiso Yoshinaka and Matsuo Basho. The temple is a seven-minute walk from

Zeze Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is located adjacent to the privately-operated Keihan Electric Railway Keihan Zeze Station, but the t ...

on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

Biwako Line The is the nickname used by the operator of the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) to refer to the portion of the Tōkaidō Main Line (between Maibara Station and Kyoto Station) and the Hokuriku Main Line (between Maibara Station and Nagaha ...

or the

Keihan Electric Railway , known colloquially as the , , or simply , is a major Japanese private railway operator in Osaka, Kyoto, and Shiga Prefectures. The transit network includes seven lines; four main lines with heavy rolling stock, two interurban lines, and a funi ...

Ishiyama Sakamoto Line The is a railway line in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Keihan Electric Railway. Stations History The Otsu Railway opened the Hamaotsu to Awazu section in 1913, electrified at 600 V DC. The line was extende ...

References

External links

Lake Biwa Travel Guide

Shiga-Biwako Tourist Information page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gichu-ji Buddhist temples in Shiga Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Tendai temples Ōtsu Ōmi Province

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links