250px, Amida-do, An Important Cultural Property 250px, Main Hall is a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

located in the town of Daisen,

Tottori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, least populous prefecture of Japan at 538,525 (2023) and has a geographic area of . ...

, Japan. It belongs to the

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 ...

sect of Japanese Buddhism, and its ''

honzon , sometimes referred to as a Gohonzon ( or ), is the enshrined main image or principal deity in Japanese Buddhism. The buddha, bodhisattva, or mandala image is located in either a temple or a household butsudan. The image can be either a statue ...

'' is a statue of Jizo Bosatsu.The temple is built on the slopes of Daisen. The Amida-dō and other parts of the temple are designated National Important Cultural Properties. The temple precincts are protected as a National Historic Site

History

Early history

Mount Daisen, from early times, was considered a

sacred mountain Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many reli ...

by practitioners of Koshintō, an early form of the

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

religion. By the 7th century the area became a center of

shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn prim ...

, a

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus ...

religion which incorporated aspects Koshintō, Japanese folk

animism Animism (from meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in ...

and

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

and

esoteric Buddhism ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...

of the Shingon Mikkyō and the

sects. The details of the temple's foundation is unknown, but according to temple legend, the ''

kuni no miyatsuko , also read as ''kokuzō'' or ''kunitsuko'', were officials in ancient Japan during the Yamato period who governed provinces called ''kuni''. Yamato period ''Kuni no miyatsuko'' governed provinces called ''kuni'' (国), although the location, nam ...

'' of

Hōki Province was a former province in the area that is today the western half of Tottori Prefecture in the San'in region of Japan. Hōki was bordered by Inaba, Mimasaka, Izumo, Bitchū, and Bingo Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of ...

, named "Toshikata" shot a deer with his bow on the slopes of the sacred mountain. Repenting for his act, he became a priest and took the name of Koren Shonin in 718 AD, and constructed a small hut to worship Jizo Bosatsu. After the 9th century, this temple came under the control of the

sect and grew to become one of the most important of its centers in the Chugoku region. The head monk, or ''Zashu'', of this temple was dispatched from

Enryaku-ji is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was first founded in 788 during the early Heian period (794–1185) by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana ...

, the headquarters of Tendai sect, and after serving a term here, returned to

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by ...

and was promoted. Pilgrimage routes to the temple developed to the southern coast from the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

and the temple was protected by local warlords such as the

Amago clan The , descended from the Emperor Uda (868–897) by the Kyogoku clan, descending from the Sasaki clan (Uda Genji). Kyogoku Takahisa in the 14th century, lived in Amako-go (Izumo Province), and took the name 'Amago'. The family crest is also t ...

and the

Mōri clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. Durin ...

in the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

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 ...

, the temple controlled estates with a ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 5 ...

'' of 3000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'' and was independent of

Tottori Domain 270px, Ikeda Yoshinori 270px, Front gate of the Tottori Domain residence in Edo was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now Tottori Prefecture on the island of Honshu. It controlled all of Inaba Prov ...

, which controlled the remainder of Hōki Province.

Modern history

Daisen-ji was greatly affected by the anti-Buddhist ''

haibutsu kishaku (literally "abolish Buddhism and destroy Shākyamuni") is a term that indicates a current of thought continuous in Japan's history which advocates the expulsion of Buddhism from Japan.Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

in 1868. Daisen-ji was closed in 1875. The Daichimyōkogen hall became the

Ōgamiyama Shrine 250px, Saino Kawara is a Shinto shrine, in Daisen, Tottori, Japan. A number of its structures have been designated Important Cultural Properties. Origins Ōgamiyama Jinja is a complex of Shinto shrines, which were created to worship Daise ...

, and the Shinto-related assets of Daisen-ji were removed and transferred to the shrine. Daisen-ji was allowed to reopen in 1903. In 1928 the Dainichi-dō was destroyed by fire. Numerous cultural treasures were lost in the fire, notably the ''Daisen-ji engi emaki'', the illustrated scrolls of the history of the temple. The Dainichi-dō was reconstructed in 1951.

Cultural Properties

Important Cultural Properties

*, thatched, 5x5 bay single story wooden structure, constructed in 1552. *, Heian period, inscribed with date of 1131. *, Nara period. *, Nara period.

Registered Tangible Cultural Properties

*, 5x6 bay single story wooden structure, constructed in 1951. *, 1x1 bay single story wooden structure, constructed in 1950.

References

External links

Official site
{{Buddhist temples in Japan Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Japan Buddhist temples in Tottori Prefecture Tendai temples Hōki Province Daisen, Tottori Important Cultural Properties of Japan Shugendō Historic Sites of Japan Temples of Kṣitigarbha Izumo Shrine and Buddhism Sacred Sites