User:Urashimataro/kan'eiji
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| Toeizan Kan'ei-ji Endon'in | |
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 Kan'ei-ji's Original Five-Storied Pagoda, Ueno
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| Information | |
| Denomination: | Tendai |
| Founded: | 1625 |
| Founder(s): | Tenkai, Tokugawa Iemitsu |
| Address: | Sakuragi 1-14-11, Ueno, Taito-ku, Tokyo |
| Country: |  Japan |
| Phone: | 03-3821-1259 |
| Website | |
| Website: | None |
The Toeizan Kan'ei-ji Endon'in (東叡山寛永寺円頓院?) is a Buddhist temple in Ueno, Taitō-ku, Tōkyō, Japan and the head temple of the Kanto area of the Tendai sect[1]. It was founded by Tokugawa Iemitsu and Tenkai was its first chief priest. Its main object of cult is Yakushinyorai (薬師如来?)[1]. From the middle of the 17th century to its destruction, it was tradition to choose as its chief priest a member of the emperor's family. As the head temple of the tendai sect, it had juristiction over the Nikkozan and the Hieizan temples, but it was destroyed during during the Boshin War in 1868, and never fully recovered.
Because it was one of the two Tokugawa mortuary temples and because it was destroyed in the closing days of the war that put an end to the Tokugawa shogunate, the temple's name is inextricably linked to that of the Tokugawa shoguns. Named after the Kan'ei era during which it was erected, the great complex used to occupy all the heights to the north and east of the Shinobazu Pond and the land to the east where Ueno Station now is, and consisted of over 30 buildings. Of the 15 Tokugawa shōguns, six were buried here. The temple and its numerous annexes were almost completely destroyed during the Boshin War's Battle of Ueno and were never restored. The site where it once stood was confiscated and is presently occupied by Ueno Park. What is today the temple's main hall was taken from Kita-in in Kawagoe (Saitama Prefecture) and transferred to the site of another, lesser temple, the Ooji-in in 1879. Of the original central complex only a gate remains. There are also a few of its parts left in Ueno Park, among them the Bentendo, the Five-Storied Pagoda, and the Tōshō-gū (see photos).
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[edit] History
[edit] Foundation and Construction
Of the two Tokugawa mortuary temples in Edo, the Zōjō-ji was the oldest and had existed since the Middle Ages. Tenkai, priest of the Tendai sect to which belonged shoguns Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tokugawa Hidetada and Tokugawa Iemitsu, wanted however to open a large temple that would become a Tendai focus for the Kanto area. Shogun Hidetada, who knew that, in 1622 gave him the area now occupied by Ueno Park.
At the time, on the land there were the suburban re sidences of three Diamyos (Todo Takatora of the Tsu domain, Tsugaru Nobuhira of the Hirosaki domain and Hori Naoyori of the Murakami domain), but the land was expropriated and donated to Tenkai for the temple. After Hidetada's retirement, in the second year of the Kan'ei era（1625, during the reign of the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, on the land where now is the Tokyo National Museum was erected the residence of the chief abbott's residence. This year is generally considered the Kan'ei-ji's year of foundation. The name was taken from the then-current Kan'ei era, and as sangō was chosen Toeizan, meaning the Hieizan of the east, in analogy to the Hieizan temple that protected the capital's north-east (an unlucky direction). In 1627 were built the Hokkedō, the Jōgyōdō, the Tahōtō, the Rinzō, and the Tōshō-gū. In 1631 were added the Kiyomizu Kannondō and the five storied pagoda, but all these were almost all destroyed during the Battle of Ueno in the closing days of the shogunate.
Gradually, more buildings were added until there were more than 30, but the Konponchudō, that is the main building of the temple complex, was inaugurated only 70 years after the foundation, in the 11th year of the Genroku era (1698), during the reign of 5th shogun Tokugawa Tsunakichi. During those 70 plus years, the function of Konponchudo was played by the Honbō.
[edit] The Tokugawa and the Kan'ei-ji
With the favor of the Tokugawa, the temple prospered but, at least in the first years since foundation, it was just the family's praying temple, not its funerary one. The sole mortuary temple of the Tokugawa was the Zojo-ji, where the second shogun Hidetada rests. His successor Iemitsu, however, being Tenkai's devout disciple, chose the Kan'ei-ji for his funeral, and dedcided to send his remains to Nikko, where Ieyasu's mausoleum was.
After that, the fourth shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna and the fifth Tokugawa Tsunayoshi were put to rest in Ueno, and Kan'ei-ji became a Tokugawa mortuary temple together with the Zoei-ji. Of course, the Zojo-ji didn't like the change but, after the next shogun Tokugawa Ienobu's mausoleum was built on its land, the custom became to alternate the temples at each generation, custom that lasted until the closing of the shogunate era. Excepted Ieyasu, Iemitsu (buried in Nikko) and Yoshinobu (buried in the Yanaka Cemetery, all 12 shogun are buried either at the Zojo-ji or at the Kan'ei-ji, six at one and six at the other.
[edit] Rinnōjinomiya
In 1643, after Tenkai's death, Kōkai took his place. His successor was Emperor Gomizunō's third son Shuchō Hoshinnō. In 1654 he became both chief abbot at Kan'ei-ji and chief priest at Nikko. From then on until the end of the shogunate, the 15 Kan'eiji chief abbots were chosen among the Emperor's children or favorite nephews and called with the honorific Rinnōjinomiya. They had prestige equal to that of the three great Tokugawa Gosanke clans (Mito, Owari and Kii) and immense religious power.
[edit] The Temple's End and Resurrection
The final period of the Edo era was the golden age of the temple, which controlled about a million square meters of land, produced 11790 koku of rice and had 36 subtemples (only 19 o which survive). Today's Ueno Park was entirely Kan'ei-ji territory and the temple at its peak controlled twice as much land. For example, today's Ueno National Museum used to be the temple's Honbō, and the fountain south of the museum used to be the main hall.
The main hall and practically the entire temple were destroyed during the Battle of Ueno and Rinnojinomiya went back to secular life. In 1873 the former Kan'ei-ji lands were declared to be Ueno Park and in 1875 the main hall of the Kita-ji (where Tenkai used to live) in Kawagoe was transferred to the premises of one of the former subtemples, the Ooji-in. The temple remained, but as a shadow of its former self. During WWII, US air raids burned most of the Tokugawa Mausoleum, then still intact. Whatever survived the Battle of Ueno and WWII remains within Ueno Park.
[edit] The Battle of Ueno and the Destruction of the Kan'ei-ji
In his book High City, Low City, Japan scholar Edward Seidensticker describes the last days and the final destruction of the Kan'ei-ji[2].
The revolutionary forces had occupied most of Tokyo and most of the Tokugawa troops had already surrendered, however one band of shogunate soldiers barricaded itself in Ueno with the intention to resist. They held the Kan'ei-ji's abbot prisoner, and maybe for this reason the Satsuma and Chōshū revolutionaries didn't attack.
On the 4th of July the final attack came and from early morning artillery rounds fell from Hongo's heights on Ueno. After a fierce battle, in the late afternoon the revolutionary forces broke into the southern defenses at the Black Gate (Kuromon, see below), near what is today Ueno Park's entrance. There were altogether about 300 dead, mostly defenders. Most of the artillery rounds had gone astray, causing fires in which the whole Kan'ei-ji and up to a thousand houses were destroyed. The temple's abbot fled in disguise end left the city by boat.
[edit] What Remains Of The Kan'ei-ji
- The Main Hall － Behind the Music Department of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, the main hall is less visited than the Kiyomizu Kannondō and the Bentendō, which are within Ueno Park. As already said, today's main hall isn't the original, but that of the Kita-in in Kawagoe, Saitama, transferred to the grounds of the Ooji-in in 1879. Within the temple, inside a miniature shrine is conserved the statue of Yakushi Sanzon, the main object of veneration.(The main hall is however closed to the public).
- The Shoin, or drawing room － On the back of the Honbō, this is where the last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu spent two months (February - March 1686) before the so-called Mito Retreat (水戸退去 Mito Taihō?) ((not open to the public).
- The original Honbō's front gate (an important cultural property) - Commonly called Kuromon, it lies within the Rinnō-ji, east of the Tokyo National Museum. It was originally where the Museum's main gate is now.
- Kiyomizu Kannondō (an important cultural property)- It lies within Ueno Park close to Saigo Takamori's bronze statue, it is dedicated to the [[Senjukannon]. A small edifice, it was built in 1631. It is the sixth of the 33 places in Edo dedicated to the cult of Kannon 江戸三十三箇所観音霊場.
- Bentendō - It lies on Bentenjima, the island at the center of the Shinobazu Pond. The temple's founder Jigen Daishi (Tenkai), liking Lake Biwa, had Benten Island built in imitation of Chikubushima, and then the Bentendo on it. At the time the island was accessible only by boat, but later a stone bridge was added on the east, making it possible to walk to it. Originally it had a gabled roof, but in March 1945 the building burned, and it was replaced in 1958 with the present structure in concrete and steel.
- The Former Kan'ei-ji Five-Storied Pagoda (in the photo above)(an important cultural property)）－ The original pagoda built in 1631 burned down in 1639, but was rebuilt on the same year by Doi Toshikatsu. Today, the Pagoda lies within Ueno Zoo and is property of the City of Tokyo. The term Former(旧) in the Japanese name indicates this change of property. The four Buddist divinities Shakanyarai (釈迦如来), Yakushinyorai (薬師如来), Mirokubosatsu (弥勒菩薩), and Amidanyorai (阿弥陀如来), originally enshrined there, are presently at the TOkyo National Museum.
- Tōshō-gū shrine - Tōshō-gū (東照宮) is any Shinto shrine in which Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the last shogunate of Japan, is enshrined with the name Tōshō Dai Gongen (東照大権現). The most famous Tōshō-gū is located in Nikkō in Tochigi Prefecture. The Tōshō-gū at Ueno Park is widely known[3].
- The Toki no Kane (時の鐘) bell - A belltower within Ueno Park. Today's bell was made in 1787.
- The Daibutsuyama Pagoda - Close to the Toki no Kane, it's a 1967 reproduction of the original. もと上野東照宮本地堂（神仏分離の際に破壊）の本尊であった薬師三尊像（江戸時代初期）を祀る。
- The Ueno Daibutsu - The first Buddha was built with a donation by Hori Naoyori. Many times destroyed by earthquakes, fires and other disasters, many times rebuilt, now only the head is conserved next to the Daibutsuyama Pagoda.
[edit] The Old Temple
As already explained, the whole of today's Ueno Park used to be occupied by the temple. The road from Ueno's Matsuzakaya to Ueno Park's entrance was once called Hirokōji (広小路)and was the road through which the shoguns entered the temple to pay hommage to ancestors linke Tokugawa Hidatada. The name (wide small street) comes from the fact that the road had been widened to help prevent fires. At the entrance of Ueno Park there a bridge called Mibashi (御橋 or 三橋), and after that stood the mentioned Kuromon. Ueno Park's main street, the fountain, and the street that goes toward the Tokyo National Museum were once the area of the road approaching the temple, and further was the temple's main compound. In the surroundings there were the Kiyomizu Kannondō, the Five-Storied Pagoda, the Tōshō-gū, and up to 36 minor temples. Tenkai intentionally modeled Ueno's Kan'ei-ji on Kyoto's Hieizan, so that the two compounds possessed buildings with the same name and function.
[edit] Tombs of the Tokugawa
In what used to be the Kan'ei-ji cemetery behind the Tokyo National Museum rest 6 of the 15 Tokugawa shogun (Tokugawa Ietsuna, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Tokugawa Yoshimune, Tokugawa Ieharu, Tokugawa Ienari, and Tokugawa Iesada. Ietsune's and Tsunayoshi's mausoleums were destroyed in 1945. The place is closed to the public, but can be seen from the street.
[edit] References
This article is, with a few minor additions and omissions, a translation of Japanese Wikipedia's 寛永寺 article accessed on January 2008. The following references belong to the original article.
Additions are marked, and their references are the following.
- ^ a b Japanese Compendium of History and Geography（日本歴史地名大系） (Japanese). Wakamiya Ōji. Heibonsha. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
- ^ This paragraph does not belong to the original article, and its references are the following:
- ^ This paragraph was taken from Wikipedia's Tōshō-gū shrine article retrieved on March 20, 2008
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