Myokoku-ji (妙国寺) is a Buddhist Temple in

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and in ...

, Osaka Prefecture, Japan and one of head temples of the Nichiren Sect. It is known as the location of the 1868

Sakai incident 270px, Monument to the Tosa samurai at Myōkoku-ji in Sakai The was a diplomatic incident that occurred on March 8, 1868, in Bakumatsu period Japan involving the deaths of eleven French sailors from the French corvette ''Dupleix'' in the port ...

History

Myokokuji Temple (109m by 182m) was established by Nichiko Shonin in 1592 and has been rebuilt several times since then. When Osaka Castle was burnt down in 1615 during the Summer War of Osaka,

Toyotomi The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was another primary ...

forces also burnt down Myokokuji Temple because they had heard that their enemy,

Ieyasu Tokugawa was the founder and first '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fel ...

, was hiding inside. The buildings of Myokokuji were rebuilt in 1628, but were again destroyed in

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 ...

in July 1945. In autumn of 1973 the present buildings were built again for the third time.

Sacred Tree: The Great Cycad

The cycad tree in the temple is over 1100 years old and is well known for its mysterious history.

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese '' daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unif ...

, a major daimyō during the Sengoku era who tried to unite Japan in 1580, transplanted this cycad to Azuchi Castle in what is now Shiga prefecture. However, every night a strange voice was heard in Azuchi Castle saying "Take me back to Myokokuji", and an unnatural atmosphere covered the castle and disturbed the people there. This angered Nobunaga and he let his men cut the tree down. The tree is said to have bled from the blows, fainted from the pain and looked so much like a great snake that even brave Nobunaga became afraid and sent the tree back to Myokokuji. Upon receiving the dying cycad Nichiko Shonin felt sorry for the tree and recited 1000 Hokkekyo (sutras) for it. A god with a face of a man and a body of a snake appeared in his dream saying "Thank you for your prayers. In return, I will swear three oaths. First, I will ease the pain of childbirth. Second, I will free those from the tragedy of hardship. Third, I will give happiness to those who are poor." Shonin named this guardian god of the temple Ugatoku-ryujin and built a hall on the location. On December 13, 1923 the tree became a national

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, na ...

Sakai Incident

On February 15,

Keiō was a after '' Genji'' and before '' Meiji''. The period spanned the years from May 1865 to October 1868. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * May 1, 1865 (''Genji 2/Keiō 1, 7th day of the 4th month'') : The new era name of ''K ...

4, (March 8, 1868) almost 100 sailors from a French warship offshore boarded boats and landed at Sakai Port. They came into Sakai for sightseeing and loitered inside temples and shrines and scared women and children who were astonished by the foreigners. The guardians of Myōkoku temple from the Tosa clan sought out the French sailors, but were unable to resolve the problem because of mass confusion and the inability to understand each other's language. When the French sailors took a flag from the Tosa clan, the samurai opened fire, killing thirteen. The French returned fire and retreated to their boat and this incident became an international problem. France pressed Japan for compensation and Japan was forced to pay a large sum of money and twenty samurai involved in the incident were ordered to commit ''

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese peop ...

''. On February 23 in front of Myōkoku temple with witnesses from both countries present the samurai began to cut their stomachs open. The sun had already set by the time eleven samurai had committed ''seppuku''. The French witnesses hastily left the temple and the remaining nine samurai were ordered to stop ''seppuku'' and were later exiled back to Tosa (Kochi Prefecture) by the government. Like many other samurai, these Tosa samurai died in service of their country. However, because Myōkoku temple is a designated temple by Imperial Order, the burial of the samurai was not permitted on Myōkoku temple grounds. Their remains are kept at the nearby Hojuin Temple.

History

Sacred Tree: The Great Cycad

Sakai Incident

See also