Five Mountain System

Gozan or Gozan (五 山Japanese, German " Five Mountains " ) was a arisen in the late Kamakura period and the Muromachi period embossed under the patronage of Ashikaga temple ranking system in Japanese Zen Buddhism. It united the great temple of the then dominant Zen schools in Kamakura and Kyoto and brought them an initial comprehensive recognition by the secular authorities a.

The Gozan were mainly dominated by the Rinzai schools. As the only school of Soto Zen, the Kōchi -ha (宏 智 派) or Wanshi ha was involved in the Gozan.

At the Gozan, special emphasis was on a strict orientation on Chinese Zen (Chan ) and placed on Chinese philosophy and literature. Even the scholars talked to the Gozan close relationship with the Chinese Empire of the Ming Dynasty. They practiced in Japan and strong cultural influence in the most diverse areas and played an important role in the introduction of Neo-Confucianism (especially for the shushigaku (朱子学) ) from China to Japan.

Development

The earliest historical sources speak implicitly of various temples as Gozan jissetsu ( "five mountains and ten special temple " ) that should have existed around 1299 ( including Jochi -ji, Kencho -ji, Engaku -ji and Jufuku -ji). First official recognition was granted in 1333 by the Go - Daigo- tennō during its short phase of the restoration by raising the Daitokuji in this rank. The following year, the classification included then additionally the Nanzenji, finally the Kennin -ji and the Tofuku -ji were taken.

The first statement of Gozan, which explicitly formulated a clear ranking system comes from the year 1341:

1358 a new lineup was officially that also took into account some of the vaguely defined " ten special temple ". She was identical to the preparation of the 1341 to the fifth and the omission of the young gozan:

The system was still several times the particular preferences of the government and the Imperial Court modified until it finally with the statement of Ankokuji nationwide application found.

Ankokuji and Gozan

On the advice of Musō Soseki himself Ashikaga Takauji and his brother Tadayoshi determined in each province of the country per one Ankokuji (安 国寺, "Temple for the peace of the country ") and a Rishōtō (利 生 塔, " stupa for the benefit of all living beings " ) to build.

These should be dedicated to the memory of all the deceased who had died in the war of 1331-1333 GENKO in which the Go- Daigo- tennō had broken the power of the Hōjō regent. The Kōgon - tennō 1345 gave out a corresponding edict to set up this new system and from 1362 to 1368 corresponding temples and stupas were built in a total of 66 provinces. The Ankokuji were there strictly regulated, as they were placed under the authority of the Ashikaga shugo and to them only powerful Zen temple were allowed to include that were considered branch temple of Gozan. The Rishōtō other hand, were built at the mighty temples of other schools, mainly the Shingon Shuu, Shuu Tendai and Ritsu.

Due to the civil unrest in the Ashikaga family, which eventually death Tadayoshis in 1352 meant by poisoning, as well as the death of Takauji in 1358, its inventor the implementation of their system could not live to see. When the system under Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was completed, this was only 10 years old. During the reign of his father, Ashikaga Yoshi Akira, who was employed until his death, with the pacification of the Südhofes (see Nanboku -chō ), the Ashikaga shugo, but to a large extent independent warlords ( Sengoku daimyo ) had become. While thus the provinces could no longer be about the Gozan and Ankokuji by the central government of the shogunate control, but it was still an important means of regulating the various Zen sects.

Only with the construction of the Shokoku -ji by Yoshimitsu a new ranking system was set up in 1386 with the Nanzen -ji Temple as a special class at the top:

Other ranking systems

Regardless of the Gozan grew out of the formerly dependent system of jissetsu in the following years, an independent ranking system. In the years 1480 to 1486 were already 46 to temple and finally the number grew to over 60. Later, a third ranking system came to him: that of Shozan ( " Various temple " ), which eventually brought an additional 230 temples in the rank official Zen temple.

In contrast to the Gozan Zen temple also existed in the various provinces, which became known as Rinka, these included, inter alia, founded by Dogen Soto and Rinzai -ji Eihei Daitokuji Myoshin -ji -ji and Kōgen.

In the wake of the decline of central Ashikaga government in the late Muromachi period the Rinka, who were in close contact with the local warlords were finally more important and influential than the Gozan.

Later, the Rinzai Buddhism copied practicing Sengoku daimyo Takeda Shingen, the system of Gozan with the Kōfu Gozan, to strengthen its administrative headquarters in the province of Kai, Kōfu. Other feudal lords did the same, so finally have since the late Sengoku period, many smaller local temples a " Gozan " hierarchy.

Kyoto Gozan | Kamakura Gozan | Kōfu Gozan | Kitayama Gozan | Date Gozan | Fuji Gozan | Kikuchi Gozan |