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

Rinzai The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school of ...

Tenryū sect located in Kita 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 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 ...

, and one of two funeral temples (''

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 ju ...

'') dedicated to

Ashikaga Takauji also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...

, first ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

'' of the Ashikaga dynasty. Its main object of worship is Shakyamuni,

Encyclopedia Nipponica The is a discontinued series of encyclopedia of Japan and the Japanese people, first published by Shogakukan from 1984 to 1989 in 25 volumes. After 10 years of preparation, over 130,000 entries and 500,000 indexes were organized in alphabetical or ...

and its honorary '' sangō'' prefix is .

History

Great mandala of the Tôji imperial temple in Kyoto (detail) Photo taken in 2011 in the Heidelbach hotel, annex of the Guimet museum. Tōji-in was founded at the foot of Mount Kinugasa in 1341 by Takauji himself in fulfillment of a vow.Keene (2005:2) He did so under the guidance of famous Zen teacher, calligraphist, poet and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

designer Musō Soseki, who created the Zen gardens and ponds of the temple. Tōji-in later became the Ashikaga dynasty's funeral temple and all fifteen of the Ashikaga ''shōguns'' are buried here. The temple's name was later chosen as one of Takauji's two posthumous names, . (The other is Chōju-inden, from the name of Takauji's second ''bodaiji''. See footnote.) Tōji-in was number one of the Kyoto Jissetsu, the temples immediately below the Kyoto Gozan within the

Five Mountain System The system, more commonly called simply ''Five Mountain System'', was a network of state-sponsored Chan (Zen) Buddhist temples created in China during the Southern Song (1127–1279). The term "mountain" in this context means "temple" or "mona ...

nationwide network of Zen temples. Because of its association with the Ashikaga, believed by the Emperor's supporters to be traitors because they had usurped imperial power, during the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

the temple sustained some damage. In recent years the temple has been restored to increase its appeal as a tourist attraction.

Temple precincts and gardens

The Main Hall ('' hondō'') was originally a ''tacchū'' (subtemple) of

Myōshin-ji is a temple complex in Kyoto, Japan, which serves as the 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: ...

built in 1616 by order of

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

Fukushima Masanori. The garden, the ponds, and the tearoom were designed by Musō Soseki. Tōji-in's treasure owns a drawing of the temple which is an Important Cultural Property.

''Reikō-den''

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

and all the fifteen Ashikaga ''shōguns'' are enshrined in a small building called .Photos of the statues
The sixteen statues, which are of limited artistic value, are lined up in two rows on the sides of the room, each sitting and carrying a shaku symbolizing their shogunal power. Their sculptors are unknown, but they have been tentatively dated to the early seventeenth century. The presence among the Ashikaga ''shōguns'' of a statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

, suggests that Tokugawa wished to link himself to the

Ashikaga clan The was a Japanese samurai Japanese clans, clan and dynasty which established the Ashikaga shogunate and ruled History of Japan, Japan from roughly 1333 to 1573. The Ashikaga were descended from a branch of the Minamoto clan, deriving originall ...

and give an impression of continuity between the two dynasties.Keene (2005:168) Like them, Ieyasu claimed to be a descendant of the

Minamoto clan was a Aristocracy (class), noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the List of emperors of Japan, line of succession and demoted into the ranks of Nobili ...

. In 1863 nine men broke into the ''Reikō-den'' and stole the heads of the first three Ashikaga ''shōguns'', Takauji, Yoshiakira and Yoshimitsu, as a form of revenge for their role in usurping the emperor's power during the Nanbokuchō period. The severed heads were then exposed on the banks of the

Kamo river The is located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The riverbanks are popular walking spots for residents and tourists. In summer, restaurants open balconies looking out to the river. There are walkways running alongside the river, and some stepping s ...

together with placards listing their crimes against the nation.

References

Bibliography

Daijirin is a comprehensive single-volume Japanese dictionary edited by , and first published by in 1988. This title is based upon two early Sanseidō dictionaries edited by Shōzaburō Kanazawa (金沢庄三郎, 1872–1967), ''Jirin'' (辞林 "Fores ...

, 2nd edition * Daijisen, 1st edition
Encyclopedia Nipponica
accessed on April 26, 2009 * *

Kōjien is a single-volume Japanese dictionary first published by Iwanami Shoten in 1955. It is widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions. As of 2007, it had sold 11 mi ...

6th edition, DVD Version * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toji-In Buddhist temples in Kyoto Temples of Gautama Buddha