The stoic atomosphere of Enkyo-ji Temple


“The Last samurai”, a Hollywood movie, depicted deep interaction of minds between an American captain performed by Tom Cruise and a samurai commander performed by Ken Watanabe. The magnificent old wooden houses in the movie ,where they talked with each other on the first meeting, was the temple houses in Enkyo-ji Temple. I heard that the director of the movie was pleased with the cathedral on visiting there by chance and he instantly decided to use the temple houses in the movie.


Actually, Enkyo-ji Temple, which is located in a suburb of Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, is a good place where people feel something spiritual. It is in a mountain, surrounded by deep forests and has some temple houses which were built more than one thousand years ago. Those show that great assets were donated in an ancient time. In Japan there are some similar place like Enkyo-ji Temple, Koya-san Temple, Enryaku-ji Temple and Chuson-ji Temple. The other three temples except Enkyo-ji Temple are renowned and a countless number of travelers visit there. Conversely, it can’t be said that Enkyo-ji Temple is as popular as the other three temples. Such a condition that people have not trampled in the field might have added a strong magical atmosphere to this magnificent cathedral.


The history of Enkyo-ji Temple


A priest, “Johkuh”, who had a strong spiritual power through his strict practice of Buddhism found a good place to practice the Buddhist exercises and built a temple in 966. It was on the top of a mountain, and it was said that the super brave god, “Susono-no-mikoto”, who was a brother of the god of the Imperial family, “Amaterasu-omikami”, dwelled there. Originally, it was a sacred place. The first man of the devotions was the 68th emperor, “Kaoh”, who had respected him, visited there and devoted big assets. By the assets Johkuh built some big temple houses. Afterwards, the 72nd Emperor, “Shirakawa”, and the 96th Emperor, “Godaigo”, visited there, so then they might have devoted big assets. It might have been that Enkyo-ji Temple became a group of many great temple houses.


The interesting point of the three Emperors’ visits wasn’t successive. Aside from this subject, I would like to write about the three Emperors. The time when Emperors had the power governing Japan was until the initial time of the Heian Period. And the Fujiwara family which was of the super-high aristocratic class in the Imperial Court for generations had had the power as the governor. Kaoh abdicated as the emperor after merely two years due to a plot by the Fujiwara family. After the abdication he ran Buddhism and he got spiritual power from Buddhism. He might have detested the Fujiwara family, but there was no written record of it.


The 72nd Emperor, Shirakawa, after 86years from the abdication of Kaoh was the Emperor worthy of special mention in the history of successional emperors. He started the institution of the retired emperor, “johnoh” for the first time. Of course it was the system for taking back the power of the governance against the Fujiwara family.


At that time, The Fujiwara family worshipped Enryaku-ji Temple. The relationship between the Fujiwara family and Enryaku-ji Temple was strong and many Fujiwara people ran the lords of the priests of Enryaku-ji Temple. Shirakawa might have hated Enryaku-ji Temple or might have requested a super magical power from Enkyo-ji Temple.


The 96th Emperor, Godaigo, after 232years from the abdication of Shirakawa had a strong desire worthy of special mention for reviving the power of the governance to the imperial court from the government by the samurai bakufu. He ended the Kamakura Bakufu, and he founded the Southern Imperial Court against the Northern Imperial Court which was supported by the Muromachi Bakufu by the samurai. The double paralleling imperial courts were run for approximately sixty years, it is called “ nanbokucho-jidai”. At that time, the Kamakura Bakufu by the samurai had the power of the governance and the power of the Fujiwara family was weak. So Godaigo had no reasons to hate Enryaku-ji Temple. Thus, it is appropriate to think that he might have wanted to gain a super magical power from Enkyo-ji Temple.

The scenes in Enkyo-ji Temple


Enkyo-ji Temple doesn’t have a road for cars, so we have to ride up on a cable car or walk a narrow road to visit there. The temperature of the top of the mountain was cooler than the bottom and there is a countless number of trees. And a lot of temples are located among trees of the top field of the mountain. We have to walk on the narrow paths up and down to see the temple houses. All of the temple houses had such magical aspects that I couldn’t say a word. It may be that the aspects were generated by the sanctuary of the land, the spirituality of the founder, the intentions of the three emperors, the old wooden temples which have been decaying for more than a thousand years or the severe condition of the place like hesitating visitors.


My wife and I arrived at the most secluded temple house at 4 o’clock. It was closing time but there was a monk who wore different cloths from the ones of Japanese monks. We politely asked him to stamp the goshuin stamp of the temple on our goshuin stamp-book, but he quickly and brusquely rejected our request. He was a Tibetan Buddhist, so we agreed. We felt that his behavior which looked like obstinacy was strict. Including it all the atmosphere in Enkyo-ji Temple was worthy of special mention.

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