Kennin-ji
The Kennin -ji (Japanese建 仁 寺) is a head temple of the Rinzai Shuu, one of the two largest schools of Japanese Zen Buddhism. It is located in the district of Higashiyama Kyoto.
History
In 1202, Eisai had a plot of land in the then capital of Kyoto obtained from the shogun Minamoto no Yoriie, in order to build the first great Zen temples of the city. The imperial court under the Tsuchimikado - tennō allowed this project under the condition that the temple next to Zen and the esoteric rituals of Shingon shū and Meditationstechik ( shikan ) are taught the Tendai shū and for own warehouses would be built. In addition, the temple to a branch temple ( Betsuin ) was made of Hieizan temple complex.
Although Minamoto no Yoriie was deducted in the year of commencement, to Eisai has the support of the Successor of Minamoto no Sanetomo and Hōjō Masako, the influential widow of the first Kamakura Shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, had in 1200 completed the first devotional rites for Eisai insure. Nevertheless, he and the new temple for several years of intense hostility by the long-established Buddhist schools and the emperor saw exposed in Kyoto. Even in 1205 wrote to the destruction caused by heavy winds in the capital wearing of foreign (ie Chinese ) robes on Kennin -ji, whereupon Eisai said to have replied to a popular anecdote, laconically, that those who believed in this context, because of his supernatural power should better pay respect.
Eisai died on the fifth day of the seventh month in 1215 at the temple. Whether Dogen, who later became the founder of the Soto Shuu, the other major school of Zen in Japan, after that a student was on Kennin -ji before Eisai's death or until two years, is controversial in the research, although most scientists tend a meeting Eisai and Dogen on the temple can not be excluded. In contrast, however, it is much more questionable whether Dogen, as he stated in his own memoirs, a direct disciple of Eisai was that in old age often traveled to Kamakura at this time between the Kennin -ji and the Jufuku -ji. Usually it is assumed that Dogen actually a direct disciple of Myōzen, Eisai's successor at the temple was. By the year 1230, in which he drew for Annyō -in at a few kilometers south located Fukakusa, the Kennin -ji Dogen remained principal residence, where he also be Hukan zazengi, a treatise on zazen and theoretical base font for later Soto shū, wrote.
The temple was badly damaged by a series of fires in the middle of the 13th century and by Enni Ben'en (圆 尔 辩 圆; 1201-1280 ) in 1258 rebuilt.
Only with the beginning of the 1259 term of the eleventh temple superintendent, Lanxi Daolong (Chinese兰溪 道 隆, Pinyin Lanxi Dàolóng, W.-G. Lan -hsi Tao -long; jap Rankei Dōryū; 1213-1278 ) was born on Kennin -ji only Zen taught.
At the end of the Kamakura period was the Kennin -ji part of the Gozan system, which officially and practically made him one of the most influential Zen temple in the country during the Muromachi period.
After his arrival in Japan of the Chinese Chan monk Qingzhuo Zhengcheng taught (Chinese淸 拙 正 澄, Pinyin Qingzhuo Zhengcheng, W.-G. Ch'ing -cho Cheng- ch'eng; jap Seisetsu Shōchō; 1274-1339 ) on Kennin -ji.
In the 16th century the temple was again heavily damaged by fire and was only in the 17th century through donations by the Ankoku -ji and the Tofuku -ji, and through the auspices of the Toyotomi family again be restored.