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, officially , is a
Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...
of the Omuro sect of
Shingon Buddhism is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō-j ...
in Umegahata Toganōchō, Ukyō Ward,
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. Kōzan-ji is also known as Kōsan-ji and Toganō-dera. The temple was founded by the Shingon scholar and monk
Myōe (February 21, 1173 – February 11, 1232) was a Japanese bhikkhu, Buddhist monk active during the Kamakura period who also went by the name Kōben (, Chinese: 高辨, Gāo Biàn). He was a contemporary of Jōkei (monk), Jōkei and Hōnen. Bio ...
(1173–1232) and is renowned for its numerous national treasures and important cultural properties. The Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, a group of ink paintings from the 12th and 13th centuries, are among the most important treasures of Kōzan-ji. The temple celebrates Biyakkōshin, Zenmyōshin and Kasuga Myōjin, as well as the temple's tutelary Shintō deity. In 1994, it was registered as part of the
UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
" Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto".


History

Togano, located deep in the mountains behind Jingo-ji temple, which are famous for their autumn foliage, is considered an ideal location for mountain asceticism, and there have long been many small temples in this location. In addition to Kosan-ji, there have been other temples in the area, such as and . According to legend, these were said to have been established by the imperial orders of Emperor Kōnin in 774, however, the accuracy of these claims is not clear. In 1206,
Myōe (February 21, 1173 – February 11, 1232) was a Japanese bhikkhu, Buddhist monk active during the Kamakura period who also went by the name Kōben (, Chinese: 高辨, Gāo Biàn). He was a contemporary of Jōkei (monk), Jōkei and Hōnen. Bio ...
, a Kegon Buddhist priest who had been serving at nearby Jingo-ji, was granted the land to construct a temple by
Emperor Go-Toba was the 82nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1183 through 1198. This 12th-century sovereign was named after Emperor Toba, and ''go-'' (後), translates literally as "later"; ...
. He selected the name . The temple's name was taken from a line in the Avatamsaka sutra: . The temple has been destroyed numerous times by fire and war. The oldest extant building is , which dates from the
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 ...
(1185–1333).


Layout

Jingo-ji houses a diagram of Kōzan-ji that was drawn in 1230, some 20 years after it was constructed. The diagram is registered as an important cultural property, because it shows the original layout of the temple. From the diagram, we know that Kōzan-ji originally consisted of a large gate, a main hall, a three-storied pagoda, a hall dedicated to Amitabha, a hall dedicated to Lohan, a bell tower, a scripture hall, and a
Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
shrine dedicated to the tutelary deity of the area. However, all of these buildings have since been destroyed, except for the scripture hall, which is now known as Sekisui-in. In addition to Sekisui-in, today's Kōzan-ji also contains a main hall (originally part of Ninna-ji, relocated to Kōzan-ji) and a hall dedicated to the founding of the temple, which houses an important carved wooden bust of Myōe. Both of these buildings, however, are modern reconstructions.


Cultural properties

The temple possesses numerous National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties, however, the majority of them are currently on loan to national museums in Kyoto and Tokyo.


National Treasures

* Sekisui-in – Built in the Kamakura period. Irimoyazukuri style, with a gabled, hipped, shingled roof * Chōjū-giga * – created in the Kamakura period, this picture scroll portrays the lives of Korean Kegon founders
Uisang Uisang (; 625–702) was one of the most eminent early Silla Korean scholar-monks, a close friend of Wonhyo (元曉). He traveled to China, studying at Mount Zhongnan as a student of the influential Huayan master Zhiyan (智儼) and as a se ...
and Wonhyo. * – A portrait of Myōe also known as and created during the Kamakura period. In contrast to the standard image of a Buddhist monk, this picture features a tiny Myōe surrounded by mountains. * – A portrait created in the Kamakura period at the end of the 12th century * – a Tang period copy of a Chinese dictionary created during the
Liang dynasty The Liang dynasty (), alternatively known as the Southern Liang () or Xiao Liang () in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the third of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. It was pre ...
. This is the oldest Chinese character dictionary in Japan. * – valued as the only remaining copy of an old kanji dictionary compiled 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 ...
. It was copied in 1114. * – A Tang period manuscript of Buddhist tales. Now disappeared from China, this is the oldest extant copy of this work.


Important Cultural Properties

A large number of buildings, picture scrolls, carvings, furnishings and old writings have been registered as important cultural properties. The most significant among these include: * Founders Hall (Kaizandō) * A lacquered wooden statue of Bhaisajyaguru in seated posture created towards the end of the Nara period. Originally the center of a ''sanzonzō'' (a trio of Buddhist statues with the primary image in the center and flanked by two attendants), the attendant images were removed during the Meiji period. The image of Suryaprabha now rests in the
Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō wards of Tokyo, ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the , is considered the oldest national museum and the largest art museum in Japan. The museum collects, prese ...
, and the image of the
Chandraprabha Chandraprabha () or Chandranatha is the eighth Tirthankara of of Jainism in the present age (). According to traditional accounts, he was born to King Mahasena and Queen Lakshmana Devi at Chandrapuri to the Ikshvaku dynasty. According to Jain ...
in the university museum of the
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music or is a school of art and music in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, crafts, inter ...
. * A wooden statue of Myoe in sitting posture created in the Kamakura period and located in the hall dedicated to the founding of the temple * A pair of wooden deer statues created in the Kamakura period. These statues, of a buck and a doe, were uniquely constructed to look like ''
komainu , often called lion-dogs in English, are statue pairs of lion-like creatures, which traditionally guard the entrance or gate of the shrine, or placed in front of or within the ''honden'' (inner sanctum) of Japanese Shinto shrines. Symbolic mea ...
'', the lion statues that guard the entrance to a Shinto shrine. Deer are messengers of Kasuga Myōjin, the temple god, and as such, it is believed that these statues were placed in front of Kasuga Myōjin's altar. * A statue of Byakkoshin in standing posture, constructed in the early Kamakura period. As the name indicates, the statue is painted white in its entirety—from its clothes to the pedestal. This is said to represent the snow of the Himalayas. * A wooden statue of Zenmyōshin constructed in the early
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 ...
. Much of the vivid paint still remains, and this statue, along with Biyakkō-shin, is said to be the work of famed Buddhist sculptor Tankei. * The Kōzan-ji document archive, which contains thousands of scriptures and records, some of which date back to the Heian period * – a record of Myōe's dreams from 1196 to 1223. His dreams are said to have exerted a great deal of influence on his religious thinking.


See also

* Jingo-ji * Kōsan-ji * List of National Treasures of Japan (temples) * List of National Treasures of Japan (paintings) * List of National Treasures of Japan (writings)


References


External links

*
Kyoto Prefectural Tourism Guide for Kōzan-ji
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosan-Ji Buddhist temples in Kyoto World Heritage Sites in Japan National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan Historic Sites of Japan 8th-century establishments in Japan 774 establishments Religious buildings and structures completed in the 770s