The was 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 ...

located in the Mitsuke neighborhood of what is now the city of

Iwata, Shizuoka former Mitsuke School in Iwata is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 169,897 in 68,215 households and a population density was 1,000 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Iwata is ...

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 was one of the

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) for the purpose of promoting

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

as the national religion of Japan and standardising control of the imperial rule over the provinces. The original temple no longer exists, but the temple grounds are an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

which was designated as a Special National Historic Site in 1962. The area under protection was expanded in 2012.

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 AD, 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 . The Tōtōmi Kokubun-ji site is approximately 1.3 kilometers north from Iwata Station on the

Tōkaidō Main Line The Tōkaidō Main Line () is one of the most important railway corridors in Japan, connecting the major cities of Tokyo and Kobe via Shizuoka (city), Shizuoka, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka. The line, with termini at Tokyo Station, Tokyo and Kōbe St ...

railway. The nearby area has many ancient ruins, including the site of the

provincial capital A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational division, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encomp ...

for

Tōtōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa Province, Mikawa, Suruga Province, S ...

. The ruins of the Kokubun-niji provincial nunnery associated with the provincial temple are located a short distance to the north. Initial

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 were conducted from 1951 through 1954, uncovering the foundations of the

Kondō Kondō, Kondo or Kondou (近藤 "near wisteria") is a surname prominent in Japanese culture, although it also occurs in other countries. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese ballet dancer *, man known for marrying a fictional vocal ...

, ''Kōdō'' (Lecture Hall),

Pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

, middle gate, southern gate, and a double set of

cloisters A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm southe ...

and enclosing walls, along with many pottery shards,

roof tiles 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 ...

and nails from the Nara period. This was the first major excavation of a ''kokubun-ji'' ruin in Japan. The site measured 180 meters long from east-to-west and about 253 meters north-to-south. The layout of the buildings was in accordance with the standardized "

Shichidō garan ''Shichidō garan'' is a Buddhism in Japan, Japanese Buddhist term indicating the seven Dō (architecture), halls composing the ideal Buddhist temple compound. This compound word is composed of , literally meaning "seven halls", and , meaning " ...

" formation, similar to

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 ...

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

, the template upon which the ''kokubunji'' temples were based. The roof tiles used for the temple were baked in a kiln that was located in nearby

Kakegawa is a city in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 117,925 in 45,519 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Kakegawa is in the coastal plains of southwest Shizuoka Prefecture. It is border ...

. The Kondō was a seven by four

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

hall with dimensions of 27.6 by 15.6 meters. The foundations for the pagoda were extraordinarily large, measuring 16 meters on each side. From these dimensions, it can be calculated that the pagoda had a probable height of 68 meters, and was a seven-story structure. The temple area was surrounded by an earthen enclosure, traces of which remain on the west side. The exact date of the temple's foundation is unknown, and it disappears from historical records after a fire in 819 AD. However, the temple is believed to have existed until at least the latter half of the 10th century to the 11th century. An image of Yakushi Nyōrai, which was worshipped by local villagers in a small chapel on the site until the end of the

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 ...

is believed to be a survivor of the original temple, and is now housed in a small

Shingon 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- ...

temple located nearby. The site is now a public historical park with reconstructions of some of the gates and walls of the temple complex.

Gallery

File:Totomi Kokubunji 2018-04 yakushido 1.jpg, present-day Yakushi-dō File:Totomi Kokubunji 2018-04 auditorium.jpg, Site of the Kōdō File:Totomi Kokubunji 2018-04 tower.jpg, Site of the Pagoda File:Totomi Kokubunji 2018-04 gate 2.jpg, Site of the South Gate

References

External links

Iwata city official site

{in lang, ja Special Historic Sites Iwata, Shizuoka Tōtōmi Province 8th-century establishments in Japan Kokubunji Buddhist archaeological sites in Japan

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links