Honpō-ji (本法寺) is a

Nichiren Buddhist Nichiren Buddhism (), also known as ''Hokkeshū'' (, meaning ''Lotus Sect''), is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of the Kamakura period schools ...

(specifically

Nichiren-shū is a combination of several schools ranging from four of the original Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhist schools that date back to Nichiren's original disciples, and part of the fifth: Overview The school is often referred to as the Minob ...

)

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, Japan. Its sangō (山号; lit., "mountain name"; a type of appellation carried by many Buddhist temples) is "Eishōzan" (叡昌山).

History

Honpō-ji was established in 1436 by Nisshin. It was originally constructed in the Higashinotōin-Ayakōji (東洞院綾小路) area of the city, but when Nisshin angered the shōgun

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the third '' shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate, ruling from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira's third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō (). Yoshimitsu ...

and was imprisoned, the temple was destroyed. Nisshin at last was pardoned in 1462, and rebuilt his temple at Sanjō-Marikōji in central Kyoto the following year, 1463. Nisshin's teachings thereafter gained a large following in Kyoto, and his temple, Honpō-ji, became a major head temple (''honzan'') in central Kyoto. After Nisshin's death, the Tenmon Hokke Rebellion of 1536 occurred in Kyoto, and all the Nichiren sect temples were destroyed. In 1542, however, Honpō-ji was rebuilt at Ichijō Horikawa-agaru, and in 1590, it was moved to its present location, at Ogawa Teranouchi-agaru in the Kamigyō-ku ward of Kyoto city. It was ravaged in the Great

Tenmei is a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the An'ei Era and before the Kansei Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1781 : The new era name of Ten ...

Fire of 1788, and so, most of the current buildings are reconstructions dating from after 1788.''Kyoto Daijiten'' (京都大辞典, "Kyoto Encyclopedia"), entry for "Honpō-ji". Tankosha Publishing Company, 1984. .

References

Works cited

* Buddhist temples in Kyoto Nichiren-shū temples Kyoto Prefecture designated tangible cultural property {{Japan-Buddhist-temple-stub