, is a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temple belonging to the

Myōshin-ji is a temple complex in Kyoto, Japan, and head temple of the associated branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. The Myōshin-ji school is by far the largest school in Rinzai Zen, approximately as big as the other thirteen branches combined: it contains wit ...

branch of the

Rinzai school The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by My� ...

Japanese Zen :''See also Zen for an overview of Zen, Chan Buddhism for the Chinese origins, and Sōtō, Rinzai and Ōbaku for the three main schools of Zen in Japan'' Japanese Zen refers to the Japanese forms of Zen Buddhism, an originally Chinese ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

located in the

Aoi ward is one of three wards of the city of Shizuoka in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, located in the northern part of the city. Aoi-ku borders Suruga-ku in the south and Shimizu-ku to the southeast; the west faces Shimada, Fujieda and Kawanehon and ...

of the city of Shizuoka,

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the north ...

, Japan. Its main image is a statue of Amida Nyōrai. It was the ''

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant jus ...

'' of the

Imagawa clan was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji by way of the Kawachi Genji. It was a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan. Origins Ashikaga Kuniuji, grandson of Ashikaga Yoshiuji, established himself in ...

, a powerful

Sengoku period The was a period in Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Variou ...

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

'' clan. The temple is noted for its

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

, which is a nationally designated

Place of Scenic Beauty is a collective term used by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties to denote Cultural Properties of JapanIn this article, capitals indicate an official designation as opposed to a simple definition, e.g "Cultural ...

; however, the temple is only open to the public for two days each autumn, and it is not possible to view this garden other than during that period.

History

Rinzai-ji was founded in 1536, by

Imagawa Ujichika was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. He was the 10th head of the Imagawa clan of Suruga Province. Ujichika was the son of Imagawa Yoshitada. He was the husband of Jukei-ni. Biography In 1476, Ujichika father, Yoshitada, invaded ...

for his son,

Imagawa Yoshimoto was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the Sengoku period Japan. Based in Suruga Province, he was known as . he was one of the three ''daimyōs'' that dominated the Tōkaidō region. He died in 1560 while marching to Kyoto to become S ...

, on the site of a villa owned by his mother at the base of Shizuhata Castle. Yoshimoto had been sent into the priesthood as he was the third son, and was not regarded as being in the line of succession. His uncle,

Sessai Chōrō (died 1557) or Imagawa Sessai, also known as Taigen Sessai, was a Japanese abbot and mountain ascetic (''yamabushi''). He was an uncle of Imagawa Yoshimoto, and served him as military advisor and as commander of Imagawa's forces, despite his lac ...

was the founding priest. However, when both of Yoshimoto's elder brothers died, he returned to a secular life and became chieftain of the Imagawa clan after a bloody succession dispute. The temple continued to be used as the ''bodaiji'' for the clan. The temple was burned down in 1568 when the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of T ...

of Kai Province invaded

Suruga Province was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrev ...

. When the young

Tokugawa Ieyasu 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 held hostage in Sunpu by the

, he was sent to Rinzai-ji to be tutored by

. During the invasion of Suruga Province by the Takeda clan in 1568, Rinzai-ji was burned down. It was rebuilt by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1582. A number of buildings at the temple date from 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 ...

, including the current Main Hall and ''

Sanmon A , also called , is the most important gate of a Japanese Zen Buddhist temple, and is part of the Zen '' shichidō garan'', the group of buildings that forms the heart of a Zen Buddhist temple.JAANUS It can be often found in temples of other de ...

''.

Cultural properties

National Important Cultural Properties

Hondō

The Hondō of Rinzai-ji is an ''irimoya''-style structure from the early 17th century. It has a frontage of 22.7 meters ad a depth of 16.8 meters. It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1983.

National Place of Scenic Beauty

Rinzai-ji gardens

The

at Rinzai-ji became a nationally designated

in 1936.

Gallery

File:Rinzai-ji3.jpg, Sanmon File:Rinzai-ji7.jpg, Hondō File:Rinzai-ji13.jpg, Rinzai-ji gardens File:Rinzai-ji15.jpg, Rinzai-ji gardens

References

External links

Shizuoka city home page
{{Authority control Buddhist temples in Shizuoka Prefecture Rinzai temples Myoshin-ji temples Shizuoka (city) Suruga Province Important Cultural Properties of Japan Places of Scenic Beauty