Shoukoku-ji Temple: A dragon in a Zen temple


There are many Zen temples in Kyoto. Foreign travelers can enjoy the atmosphere of every Zen temple or Zen garden.


By the way, Shoukoku-ji Temple historically had a high level of social status as a Zen temple but nowadays it has few visitors. What’s the mean of the high level of social status? If you come to Kyoto for visiting temples of Buddhism, probably you will know that there are Kinkaku-ji Temple and Ginkaku-ji Temple among the many temples which are recommended. Yes, Kinkaku-ji Temple and Ginkaku-ji Temple are famous and always filled with foreign visitors, but you may not know that Shoukoku-ji Temple is the parent temple of two popular temples.


In olden times Shoukoku-ji Temple was a great cathedral of Zen, but it was burned many times, then a lot of its treasures and works of art were burned too. Nowadays Shoukoku-ji Temple has a few tourist attractions. The reason of burning that is different from other existing popular temples from those origins was that it was in the center of Kyoto.


Shoukoku-ji Temple was built by the order of the then shogunate Yoshimitsu Ashikaga, who was the third shogunate of The Muromachi Bakufu (1336-1573) and ordered the building of Kinkaku-ji Temple as well. The time of Yoshimitsu was the most prosperous time in the Muromachi Bakufu. He built it next to the government house, and the size of the land was very large due to the occupation of half of the north-side of the city and being south of the imperial Palace, and it was larger than the land of the government house. Moreover, the appearance of the temple was greater than that of the government house. According to the picture where he is waring clothes of a Buddhist shows that he probably loved Buddhism. However, there was a big civil war “Onin-no-ran” for eleven years in the city at the time of the eighth shogunate, the center of the city was burned, so then Shoukoku-ji Temple was burned completely. The present “hodo” building (the first picture above) was built in 1605 at another place.




A dragon which was drawn on the ceiling of the Zen temple


A famous Zen temple has a dragon picture which was drawn on the ceiling. A dragon is a deity monster of the guard. And the dragon is a deity of rain. Japanese people speak figuratively that rain is to grace people. So then the dragon is the symbol of teaching Buddhism to people. Shoukoku-ji Temple has a dragon picture on the ceiling and you can look at it. If you clap your hands beneath the dragon you can hear the sound of “bene”. It is the reverberating sound between the ceiling and the floor. Opening days when you can look at the dragon picture is limited. Please check it out before your visiting.

What is Zen?


Zen was started in India by Bodhidharma in about the sixth century and spread to China. At the time China had a countless number of teachings of Buddhism and Buddhists in China probably were annoyed about which was the one that people believed in. So then a new movement of Buddhism occurred and it was Zen. The largest characteristic of Zen is non-verbal-truths, “fu-ryu-monji” in Japanese. It teaches that the meaning of a verbal word is changeable by different interpretations so then Buddhist should learn Buddhism with as few words as possible. Instead, Zen Buddhist practice Buddhism by zazen and questions and answers between a master and a disciple. Finally, the Zen sect which places importance on zazen is the Sodo-syu Sect by Dogen and the Zen sect which places importance on questions and answers is the Rinzai-shu Sect by Eisai.


A big Zen priest of the Rinzai Sect was Muso-kokushi. He radiated the Rinzai Zen to the then normal people and built a lot of Zen Gardens. Moreover, he helped the many political leaders of samurai groups and Imperial Court members, who opposed each other.


Yoshimitsu Asikaga respected him as well and he built Shoukoku-ji Temple which was named the political post “shoukoku” of Yoshimitsu in memory of Muso-kokushi.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Karuta competitions by the 100 Poems

Image
I saw on TV news that many young foreigners competed karuta competitions by the 100 Poems. I was surprised at that, as well as I was interested why they played karuta competitions and why they knew how to play. Because karuta competitions are so difficult that the number of those who play the game isn’t large even in Japan. Eventually, I never have played karuta competitions. Incidentally, the 100 Poems, “hyakunin-issyu” in Japanese, are familiar with Japanese People. Japanese people in most cases learn the 100 Poems in their junior high-schools or high-schools, and they sometimes play a game of competing accuracy and quickness with several people that players grab a card written with the only second phrases of a poem from cards on tatami listening to full phrases of a poem. Of course I learned the 100 Poems in my junior high school and sometimes played the game, but I was a weak player of karuta games. Karuta competitions are a severer sport than the game above, so the sport dema
Read more

Warikan Custom In Japan

Image
Culture in a country is the result made by the specific customs based on the thoughts of the people, if it is true, to try to look out for the specific custom of a country where you visit is a joyful challenge during your traveling time. When I visited foreign countries I experienced the different customs from Japan and I was happy to know it. Many anthropologists say that Japanese culture is especially different from cultures of other countries. Then foreigners visiting Japan will feel pleasure by finding out the different customs from their countries. Warikan is the one specific Japanese custom. Warikan is to split the bill among members who ate dishes and drank in restaurants and it is generally a popular custom in Japan. I have a foreign friend who has been in Japan from Australia and I sometimes have drinking parties with him. He knows Japanese customs but perhaps his true sense depends on western customs. At paying the bill when I suggested “sloping warikan” to him as a mat
Read more

Satsuma-biwa music

Image
Hiromi Hakozaki, who is a Satsuma-biwa player, played biwa music at the machiya of Onishi-tune-shoten and explained how biwa instruments became its present form. I want to write about one of Japan’s specific sound instruments according to her explanation. Before my explanation I want to mention my impression after listening to her play, I said to her in this way. “The sounds of Satsuma-biwa is calm in terms that it allows a human physiological phenomenon like that blood pressure will be peaceful, but is very deep in terms that it lets the human spirit vibrate strongly.” Biwa v.s. Lute Biwa(Japanese lute) came far from Persia in the 8th century via The Silk Road. The picture above is an ancient Persian lute instrument(front and back) which is stored as a national treasure in Syosoin next to Todaiji or Kasuga Shrine in Nara City from the 8th century. There is an opinion that the lute in Syosoin is the original biwa(lute). And the long history for thirteen centuries in Japan tra
Read more