is a

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

temple in Kiyama,

Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of roughly 780,000 and has a geographic area of . Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasaki Prefect ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Its honorary '' sangō'' prefix is .

History

The temple was founded by

Gyōki was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Nara period, born in Ōtori county, Kawachi Province (now Sakai, Osaka), the son of Koshi no Saichi. According to one theory, one of his ancestors was of Korean descent. Gyōki became a monk at Asuka-d ...

in 717 A.D. It was razed in 835 A.D., however, it was restored by the Buddhist priest

Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and ...

in 847. In the

Kyōroku was a after ''Daiei'' and before ''Tenbun''. This era spanned from August 1528 to July 1532. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1528 : The era name was changed to mark the enthronement of Emperor Go-Nara. The previous era ended and a ...

era around the year 1530 A.D., the temple was burnt down in a war. In 1542, however, the main hall was rebuilt by

Tsukushi Korekado Tsukushi may refer to: Places *Tsukushi Province, old Japanese province, subsequently divided into **Chikuzen Province, old Japanese province, part of Fukuoka Prefecture without south and east Fukuoka **Chikugo Province, old Japanese province, th ...

( 筑紫惟門) who ruled the area. Later, in the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, Kiyama became a part of

Tsushima Province was an old province of Japan on Tsushima Island which occupied the area corresponding to modern-day Tsushima, Nagasaki. It was sometimes called . Political history The origin of Tsushima Province is unclear. It is often identified as the c ...

, and Sō Yoshinari, the feudal lord of

Tsushima Domain Tsushima may refer to: Places * Tsushima Island, part of Nagasaki Prefecture ** Tsushima, Nagasaki, a city in Nagasaki Prefecture (coterminous with Tsushima Island) ** Tsushima Province, a historical province, coterminous with modern Tsushima ...

helped rebuilt the temple in 1624.

The Eleven-Faced Kannon

The Statue of the Eleven-Faced

Kannon Guanyin () is a common Chinese name of the bodhisattva associated with Karuṇā, compassion known as Avalokiteśvara (). Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means " he One WhoPerceives the Sounds of the World". Originally regarded as m ...

(Guanyin or the Goddess of Mercy) is said to have been carved by a priest known as

. As a "hidden Buddha," it is concealed and can only be seen during the year of the

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

every 12 years.

The Garden

Red leaves and roof of main hall of Daikozenji Temple 2

The Chigiri-en (契園), behind the main hall, is a forested botanical garden at the foot of Mount Chigiri on the border between Chikushino in

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

and Kiyama in

. In the gardens, in the latter half of April and the early half of May about 50,000 azalea plants are in bloom here in a whirl of color attracting hundreds of flower lovers.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daikozen-Ji Buddhist temples in Saga Prefecture Tendai temples Buildings and structures in Saga Prefecture