Yūtenji
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is a temple of the
Jōdo-shū Jōdo-shū (浄土宗, "The Pure Land School"), is a Japanese branch of Pure Land Buddhism derived from the teachings of the Kamakura era monk Hōnen (1133–1212). The school is traditionally considered as having been established in 1175 and i ...
Buddhist sect in Nakameguro,
Meguro is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Meguro City. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. Meguro is predominantly residential in character ...
,
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
,
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 ...
.


History

The temple was founded in 1718, the 3rd year of the
Kyōhō , also pronounced Kyōho, was a after '' Shōtoku'' and before ''Genbun.'' This period spanned the years from July 1716 through April 1736. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1716 : The era name of ''Kyōhō'' (meaning "Undergo ...
era. After the 36th Buddhist monk of Zōjōji called died, one of his disciples, , built Yūtenji as his shrine. It was built in an architectural style characteristic 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 ...
, finished in 1724 and later renovated twice in 1854 and 1932. Meguro City designated the temple as a historic site in 1993.


Korean remains

The temple has been a longstanding resting place for Koreans including soldiers who fought for Japan during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and victims of the 1945 sinking of the repatriation ship
Ukishima Maru ''Ukishima Maru'' was a 4,731-ton Japanese naval transport vessel originally built as a passenger ship in March 1937. On 24 August 1945, while on a trip to repatriate Koreans in the wake of World War II, it exploded and sank in the harbor of Mai ...
. The Japanese government interred 521 Ukishima Maru victims' remains there in 1971 alongside remains of Korean soldiers and others. The South Korean government has worked with Japan to repatriate many of these sets of remains, particularly since the 2000s. As the North Korean government has no
diplomatic relations Diplomacy is the communication by representatives of state, intergovernmental, or non-governmental institutions intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern Diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. ...
with Japan, there have been no successful negotiations to repatriate North Korean remains. As of 2020, the temple stores the bones of about 700 Koreans, over half of whom are North Korean.


Transport

5 minutes walk from Yūtenji railway station on the Tokyu
Toyoko Line Toyoko is a village in the Zam Department of Ganzourgou Province in central Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana ...
.


References


External links


Yutenji home page
Buddhist temples in Tokyo Pure Land Buddhism Tokyo Metropolitan Designated Tangible Cultural Property Jōdo-shū temples {{Japan-Buddhist-temple-stub