Tō-ji

The Tō -ji (东 寺Japanese, literally " East Temple " ) or Kyo - ō Gokoku -ji (教 王 护国寺, such as: " The country beschützender temple of the king of Teaching" ) is a Buddhist temple in the district of Minami the city of Kyoto, Japan, and the main Temple of Tō -ji branch of the Shingon shū. According to him the esoteric Buddhism (密 教, Mikkyo ) of the Shingon Shuu, the tōmitsu (东 密) is named.

The study hall ( Kodo ) of Tō -ji currently houses the oldest surviving statues of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. The five - story pagoda of the Temple, a national treasure, is widely visible in Kyoto and has a height of 57 meters, the largest pagoda in Japan. It was rebuilt in its present form in the Edo period, Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1644 on the orders of, but was originally built 877-888.

On Tō -ji one of the most important festivals of the Shingon shū is committed, the Goshichinichi mishu - hō (御 七日 御 修 法). It is celebrated since the beginning of the temple on the eighth day of the new year there and takes a week to long. This high priest and temple chief of the whole country to come together, even a representative of the Tennō is present. The majority of the rites of the festival 's top secret.

History

Antiquity

Construction began about the year 793 on the orders of Kammu - tennō. He served first as a protection for Temple Kyoto (then Heian - kyō ). He stood on one side of Rajomon, one of the two large gates in the former capital of the country, on the other side of the ( now non-existent ) Sai -ji ( "West Temple "). This pattern should be that of the two major temples in the ancient capital Nara correspond ( Todai -ji and Saidai -ji).

823, the construction work was still not finished, he the monk Kūkai was appropriated by shortly after abdicating Saga tennō that with the permission of Junna - tennō housed there 50 monks he founded the Shingon shū and thus the temple within the exclusive control of his school brought - the historic first exclusive use of a temple by only one school in Japan. Through the written record of this process in the official documents, where the first time the word " Shingon shū " showed up, the official recognition of the school was carried out by the government. Simultaneously, the temple got its official new name ( Kyo - ō Gokoku -ji).

In 828 Kūkai opened on Tō -ji, the first generally accessible school in Japan, the Shugeishuchi - in with a curriculum that consisted mainly of Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist Studies (综 芸 种 智 院). However, this school was a short-term experiment was 847 and closed again.

831 put Kūkai for health reasons from his position as the highest-ranking priest at Tō -ji (东 寺 长者, Tō -ji Choja ) down and handed it Jitsue (実 恵, also Jichie; 786-847 ), while his collected there writings to his younger brother Shinga (真 雅; 801-79 ) entrusted. Jitsue sold the facilities of Shugeishuchi - in, in order to finance a Shingon rate on the temple.

After Jitsue Shinzei was (真 済; 800-860 ) head on Tō -ji, who had previously exercised this office on Takaosan -ji. Shinzei was in 853 and three additional Nembundosha sites to the already existing three Shingon shū win ( Nembundosha (年分 度 者) were priests who were employed annually by the Government and the respective schools or temples represented ). These had to be patterned on Tō -ji from then on.

Shinzeis successor at Tō -ji became his student Shinga.

Jitsues students shuei (宗 睿; 809-84 ) was Shingas successor.

Shūeis successor at Tō -ji was Shingas students Shinnen (真 然, also shinzen; 804-91 ), who moved in 876 to Kōya -san and Kukai's writings took there. Priest at Tō -ji immediately called these texts back, especially Kukai's collection of secret writings called Sanjūjō Sakushi (三十 帖 册子), but Shinnen refused. Shinnen also persuaded the year 882 the imperial court, not to let the Nembundosha the Shingon shū patterns on Tō -ji, but the Kōya -san. This was a further basis of the dispute between Kōya -san and Tō -ji.

Shinnens successor at Tō -ji was Shūeis students Yakushin (益 信; 827-906 ), the temple ordained on the Uda abdicated Tennō in the year 901. Yakushin requested the imperial court in 897, to make patterns on Tō -ji every six Nembundosha the Shingon shū again, but was so successful. This point of dispute was finally settled in 907 by Uda, by this the Tō -ji own Nembundosha granted - a practice to give the Shingon temples own Nembundosha sites was later familiar and eventually led to institutional fragmentation of the Shingon shū.

Yakushins successor was Shinnens students Shobo (圣 宝; 832-909 ). Meanwhile, students Kangen (観 贤; 853-925 ) was 912 his successor and became involved in the dispute over the Sakushi Sanjūjō: He called in the same year, the return of the priest Muku ( ?无 空; -918 ), the 894 chief priest at Kongōbu - ji had become and in whose hands was the writing at the time. Muku refused, and Kangen caused the abdication Tennō Uda, Muku writing to command the return. Even before the command arrived in the last month of the year 915, Muku left the temple with the writings and his students to settle in the province of Iga. Then Kangen for simultaneous head of Daigo -ji, Kongōbu -ji and Tō -ji was appointed and so united the hitherto fragmented Shingon shū under the authority of Tō -ji. In the year 919 Kangen eventually could also Kukai's writings bring back to Tō -ji. Significantly for the actual annulment of the dispute is the fact that the Sanjūjō Sakushi was loaned in the early Kamakura period by a priest of Ninna -ji, where it is still located.

Middle Ages

In the early Kamakura period, the temple was largely forgotten and in dilapidated condition. Only with the help of the abdicated Emperor Go - Uda, who was ordained there in 1308, he was restored piece by piece. He never reached its former glory as a center of Shingon shū but again and played since the decline of the aristocracy they been supportive in the Muromachi period only a minor role.

This time however, produced a number of priests, under which flourished Shingon studies on Tō -ji. These three priests, as the "three jewels from Tō -ji " (东 寺 三宝, tō -ji -san -po ) is known, were Raihō (頼 宝; 1279-1330 ), Goho (杲 宝; 1306-1362 ) and Genpo (贤 宝; 1333-1398 ).

Modern

1994 Tō -ji was appointed along with other historic sites in Kyoto UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities ).

On 7 July 2007, a special concert of the global charity event Live Earth series took place on the premises of the temple. Among the participating musicians were Bonnie Pink, Michael Nyman, Rip Slyme, UA and Yellow Magic Orchestra.