is a Shingon-sect

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 ...

in the Kokubunji neighborhood of the city of Hōfu, Yamaguchi,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It belongs to the

Kōyasan Shingon-shū is a Japanese sect of Shingon Buddhism. Headquartered on Mount Kōya in Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakaya ...

sect and 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 ...

is a statue of

Yakushi Nyorai Bhaiṣajyaguru (, zh, t= , , , , ), or ''Bhaishajyaguru'', formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabha-rāja ("Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light"; zh, t=藥師琉璃光(王)如來, , , ), is the Buddha of healing and medicine i ...

. It is one of the few surviving

provincial temple The are Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temples established in each of the provinces of Japan by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794). The official name for each temple was Konkomyo Shitenno Gokoku-ji (Konkōmyō Shitennō ...

s established by

Emperor Shōmu was the 45th Emperor of Japan, emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 聖武天皇 (45)/ref> according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749, duri ...

during the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

(710 – 794). Due to this connection, the foundation stones of the Nara period temple overlapping the present day complex were designated as a National Historic Site in 1957.

History

The ''

Shoku Nihongi The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the '' Six National Histories'', coming directly after the and followed by ''Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as t ...

'' records that in 741, as the country recovered from a major smallpox epidemic,

ordered that a monastery and nunnery be established in every

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, the . These temples were built to a semi-standardized template, and served both to spread Buddhist orthodoxy to the provinces, and to emphasize the power of the

centralized government under the ''

Ritsuryō is the historical Japanese legal system, legal system based on the philosophies of Confucianism and Legalism (Chinese philosophy), Chinese Legalism in Feudal Japan. The political system in accord to Ritsuryō is called "Ritsuryō-sei" (). ''Kya ...

'' system. The Suō Kokubun-ji is located at the southern foot of Mount Tatara in the eastern part of the Hōfu Plain in southern Yamaguchi Prefecture. The location was near the ''

kokufu were the capitals of the historical Provinces of Japan from the Nara period to the Heian period. History As part of the Taika Reform (645), which aimed at a centralization of the administration following the Chinese model (''ritsuryō''), the '' ...

'' or provincial capital of Suō Province, and the route of the ancient Sanyōdō highway, which connected the

Kinai region is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kina ...

with

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

passed east–west in front of the temple's South Gate. The exact date of the temple's foundation is unknown; but per

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

records it was completed by 747 AD. It is listed in the Nara period ''Tenpyō Shōhō'' of 756, so it is certain to have been completed by the 750s. The original temple declined in the middle

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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

with the decline of the power and influence of the Imperial Court, but at the beginning of 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 ...

, the revenues of Suō Province were assigned to the rebuilding of the great temple of

Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Nara, Nara, Japan. The construction of the temple was an attempt to imitate Chinese temples from the much-admir ...

and the monk

Chōgen was a after '' Manju'' and before ''Chōryaku.'' This period spanned the years from July 1028 through April 1037. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1028 : The new era name ''Chōgen'' was created to mark and event or series of ...

came to supervise its reconstruction. At the end of the Kamakura period, it was donated to

Saidai-ji } 280px, Model of Nara period Saidai-ji is a Buddhist temple located in the Saidiaji-Shiba neighborhood of the city of Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It became the head temple of the sect after the sect's founder, , took over administration in 1 ...

and was extensively reconstructed in 1325. During the

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

, the temple came under the protection of the ''

shugo , commonly translated as ' ilitarygovernor', 'protector', or 'constable', was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the shogun to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The position gave way to th ...

'' of Suō, the

Ōuchi clan was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 14th to 16th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi in the western tip of Honshu island, compris ...

, who granted it estates for its upkeep. In 1417, it was completely destroyed by fire, and was soon rebuilt. It is believed that the ''

'' of the current temple, a statue of Yakushi Nyōrai dates from this reconstruction. After the fall of the Ōuchi clan, the

Mōri clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. Durin ...

took over as protectors of the temple. The current Main Hall of the temple was reconstructed or rebuilt by the Mōri in 1779 or 1780. During a large-scale conservation repair from 1997 to 2004,

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s found that the Main Hall is built on foundation stones reused from the original Nara period structure. This is a unique example of a ''kokubunji'' temple which has not only survived to the present day, but has a Main Hall of the same size and on the same location as the original construction. During earlier archaeological excavations conducted from 1953 to 1955 and 1980–1990, the foundations of a Five-story pagoda, middle gate, south gate, and back gate, and

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

have been discovered, but there is still much unknown about the layout of the temple and the extent of its original grounds. Numerous

roof tile Roof tiles are overlapping tiles designed mainly to keep out precipitation such as rain or snow, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as clay or slate. Later tiles have been made from materials such as concrete, glass ...

s have also been recovered from the site.

Cultural Properties

Important Cultural Properties

*Suō Kokubunji Kondō (structure); built 1779, designated a national

Important Cultural Property of Japan An The term is often shortened into just is an item officially classified as Tangible Cultural Property by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and judged to be o ...

(ICP) in 1966. *Amida Nyorai (sculpture, wooden, seated image); late Heian period, height 113.4 cm, designated an ICP in 1944 * Nikko Bosatsu (sculpture, cypress wood, standing image); late Heian period, height 180 cm, designated an ICP in 1944 * Gakko Bosatsu (sculpture, cypress wood, standing image); late Heian period, height 179 cm, designated an ICP in 1944 * Shi-Tenno (sculpture, wooden, standing images, set of four); late Heian period, height 203 to 213.5 cm, designated an ICP in 1944 *Yakushi Nyorai (sculpture, wooden, standing image); Muromachi period, height 199 cm, designated an ICP in 1944. Contains inside a hand, which is said to be the only surviving portion of the original Nara period statue. *

Heart Sutra The ''Heart Sūtra'', ) is a popular sutra in Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the title ' translates as "The Heart of the Prajnaparamita, Perfection of Wisdom". The Sutra famously states, "Form is emptiness (''śūnyatā''), em ...

(scroll, gold on dark blue paper); Muromachi period, height 199 cm, designated an ICP in 1910. Calligraphy by

Emperor Go-Nara was the 105th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from June 9, 1526, until his death in 1557, during the Sengoku period of the Muromachi period, Muromachi Bakufu. His personal name was Tomohito (知仁) ...

Yamaguchi Prefectural Tangible Cultural Properties

Rōmon The is one of two types of two-storied gates used in Japan (the other one being the '' nijūmon'', see photo in the gallery below). Even though it was originally developed by Buddhist architecture, it is now used at both Buddhist temples and S ...

gate, dated 1596 *Yakushi Nyorai (sculpture, wooden, seated image), Muromachi period. *Heart Sutra, gold and silver, handwritten by cloistered

, Muromachi period *Colored silk painting of Buddha's nirvana, Muromachi period *Colored silk painting of Kumano mandala, Kamakura period *Amida Nyorai (sculpture, wooden, standing image), Kamakura period. *

Dainichi Nyorai Vairocana (from Sanskrit: Vi+rocana, "from the sun" or "belonging to the sun", "Solar", or "Shining"), also known as Mahāvairocana (Great Vairocana), is a major Buddhahood, Buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpret ...

(sculpture, gilt bronze, seated image), 13th century,

Goryeo Goryeo (; ) was a Korean state founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korea, Korean Peninsula until the establishment of Joseon in 1392. Goryeo achieved what has b ...

*Newborn Buddha (sculpture, gilt bronze, standing image), 9th century *Suo-Kokubunji ancient documents, Muromachi to Meiji period

References

External links