is a Buddhist temple of the Rinzai sect in Nikaidō
's near Kamakura, Japan. During the Muromachi period it was the family temple of the Ashikaga rulers of Kamakura (the Kantō kubō): four of the five kubō are buried there in a private cemetery closed to the public and first kubō Ashikaga Motouji's is also known with the name . Designed by prominent Zen religious figure, poet and Zen garden designer Musō Soseki (also known as Musō Kokushi), the temple lies on top of an isolated hill and is famous for both its garden and its Zen rock garden. The beauty and the quantity of its plants have gained it since antiquity the nickname . The main object of worship is Jizō Bosatsu. Zuisen-ji is an Historical Site and contains numerous objects classified as Important Natural, Cultural or Historical Properties.
History
Musō Soseki was not only the temple's founding priest, but also its
main designer.
His sponsor, Nikaidō Dōun, was the lord of
Kai
in today's Yamanashi prefecture
, where Musō had spent his youth. The name of
Dōun's family's had originally been
Fujiwara, but was later changed to Nikaidō
because the family mansion was in Nikaidō. It is likely that he
helped Muso because his temple would be erected in the area that
had given its name to his family.
Musō, who during his life had the support of powerful figures like
Emperor Go-Toba, ninth
shikken Hōjō
Sadatoki and eleventh
shikken Hōjō Takatoki, chose this present
location because he believed it was ideal for a
Zen temple.
In 1326 he moved from a temple called
Nanpō-in near Engaku-ji
to the Momijigayatsu Valley to direct the
construction work. Founded in 1327 with the name , Zuisen-ji
in its first version, completed in 1328, consisted of a temple to
goddess
Kannon (a
Kannonden), a
belvedere (the ) and a Zen garden. After the fall of the Kamakura
shogunate in 1333 Zuisen-ji came under the protection of the
Ashikaga family. First
Kantō
kubō Ashikaga Motouji, son of
Ashikaga Takauji, chose to be buried in it,
thus starting a tradition. It was during that period and under his
sponsorship that the name was changed and the temple assumed its
finished form. In 1386 it was nominated first of the
Kantō Jissetsu, a group of
temples second in power only to the
Five Mountain System. At the peak of
its power it had several subtemples, including one dedicated to
Ashikaga Takauji's mother and another to Ashikaga Motouji, but none
of them has survived. Zuisen-ji as a whole was an important center
of development of the
Literature of the Five
Mountains, and figures like
Gidō Shūshin lived and worked
here.
During the Edo period
Tokugawa
Mitsukuni had the temple restored and donated a wooden statue
of Thousand-armed Kannon, Goddess of Mercy, meant to be housed in
the belvedere as Zuisen-ji's main object of worship. The
Shinpen Kamakurashi, a 1685 guide book
to Kamakura commissioned by Mitsukuni which had great impact on the
city's history, was written at the belvedere by Kawai Tsunehisa,
Matsumura Kiyoyuki and Rikiishi Tadakazu.
The original building has, like the others, been lost, but the
statue survives and his housed in the main hall of the
temple.
Features
Yōan-ji
The narrow road that turns right before the ticket counter leads to
a
stele marking the spot where a temple called
used to stand. It was there that fourth kubō
Ashikaga Mochiuji, who had rebelled
against the shogunate, in 1439 made his last stand against
shogun Ashikaga
Yoshinori's forces, finally disemboweling himself to avoid the
shame of being taken prisoner. He is buried together with three
other
kubō in a small cemetery within Zuisen-ji (closed to
the public). The stele reads:
When Kantō kubō Ashikaga Ujimitsu died on January 11,
1398, he was given the posthumous
name . His son Mitsukane
built this temple giving it his father's posthumous name. The
temple's oshō Dombo Ushūō was a
follower of Musō Soseki. On March 24, 1439 kubō Mochiuji,
descendant of Ujimitsu, fought here against shogun Yoshinori, was
defeated and disemboweled himself. The temple was burned and never
rebuilt. This is where it stood.
Erected by the Kamakuramachi Seinendan in March 1926
The temple
The path to the temple then starts to climb the hill and divides in
two. The path to the left is the original one built by Musō Soseki,
and at its beginning stands a brown stone stele that remembers the
fact (see photo).
The stele at the beginning of Musō
Soseki's old road
The temple's compound is now relatively small and its buildings are
all new, with the exception of the , which was built during the
early
Edo period and was brought here
from
Yokohama's in 1963.
The Henkai
Ichirantei, the belvedere originally built by Musō Soseki from
where one can see Mount
Fuji
, is out of sight in the back, beyond the Zen rock
garden, and is closed to visitors..
Behind the temple there's a group of about 80
yagura, which are tombs typical of
Kamakura consisting in caves dug in the rock. The group is known as
the .
Behind the main hall, the Zen rock garden was designed by Musō
Soseki and consists of a pond with an arched bridge, a waterfall, a
small island and a cave. It used to be surrounded by plants, but
they were removed in 1969 to create the present landscape, which is
faithful to the original blueprints. The stairs visible in its
background go to the Ichirantei. The garden is a nationally
designated Place of Scenic Beauty. The extreme simplicity of the
Zen garden contrasts with the garden in front of the main hall,
which is considered the most beautiful in Kamakura.
The temple's cemetery houses the tombs of many famous men of
letters and intellectuals.
See also
- For an explanation of terms concerning Japanese Buddhism,
Japanese Buddhist art, and Japanese Buddhist temple architecture,
see the Glossary of
Japanese Buddhism.
Notes
- Kamiya (2008:98-102)
- The exception being the last one, Shigeuji, who
escaped to Koga to become the Koga kubō. See the
Kantō
kubō article.
- Yasuda (1990:26)
- Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei
- Harada (2007:51–52)
- Shirai (1976:169)
- Kamakura Green Net, Zuisen-ji temple accessed on November 23,
2008
- Takahashi (2005:20)
- Original Japanese text available here
- Gregorian date obtained directly from the
original Nengō
(Ōei 5, 4th day of the 11th
month) using Nengocalc
- Gregorian date obtained directly from the original
Nengō (Eikyō 11, 10th day of the 2nd month)
using Nengocalc
- Visible in Google Earth:
References
External links
Wikis
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