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 Somebachō neighborhood of the city of Masuda,

Shimane Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a ge ...

, Japan. The temple belongs to the

Tōfuku-ji is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto, Japan. Tōfuku-ji takes its name from two temples in Nara, Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji.Japan ReferenceTōfuku-ji/ref> It is one of the Kyoto ''Gozan'' or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto". It ...

branch of the

Rinzai school The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school, Linji s ...

. The temple's full name is .

History

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 temple called Sukan-ji (崇観寺) was built slightly to the north of this location in 1363. Sukan-ji was patronized by the powerful Masuda clan for generations. The 15th generation chieftain of the clan, Masuda Kanehiro invited

Sesshū Tōyō , also known simply as , was a Japanese Zen monk and painter who is considered a great master of Japanese ink painting. Initially inspired by Chinese landscapes, Sesshū's work holds a distinctively Japanese style that reflects Zen Buddhist ae ...

to become the fifth chief priest of Sekan-ji, and in the ''

Bunmei was a after '' Ōnin'' and before ''Chōkyō''. This period spanned from April 1469 through July 1487.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Bunmei''" i ''Japan encyclopedia'', p. 89 n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussb ...

'' era (1469-1487) Sesshū laid out its gardens. The semi-circumferential pond garden, which retains the characteristics of the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

, is centered on a pond shaped like

Japanese crane The red-crowned crane (''Grus japonensis''), also called the Manchurian crane (; the Chinese character '丹' means 'red', '頂/顶' means 'crown' and '鶴/鹤' means 'crane'), is a large East Asian crane among the rarest cranes in the world. I ...

with outspread wings in front of the ''

shoin is a type of audience hall in Japanese architecture that was developed during the Muromachi period. The term originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but later it came to mean just a drawing room or stu ...

'' study, with a small island. Using the slope of the hill in the background, azaleas are planted in a stepped pattern, and weeping cherry trees are arranged. This is said to be one of the most famous of Sesshū's gardens. In the last years of Sesshū's life, he continued to live in Masuda to study

Japanese Zen :''See also Zen for an overview of Zen, Chan Buddhism for the Chinese origins, and Sōtō, Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku for the three main schools of Zen in Japan'' Japanese Zen refers to the Japanese forms of Zen, Zen Buddhism, an orig ...

. In 1506, at 87 years old, Sesshū died at Toko-ji temple, but his remains were taken to Igō-ji, where he was cremated. Sukan-ji fell into ruins 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 ...

, but in the ''

Tenmon is the ninja art of understanding and using meteorology as a strategic weapon. It allowed ninja to foresee weather changes and to use them as an advantage. By knowing nature's changes, animal behaviour, or atmospheric/astronomic signs, one could ...

'' era (1532-1555), the 17th chieftain of the Masuda clan, Masuda Munekane, constructed Iko-ji on the hill to the south of Sukan-ji, and the two temples were merged. The buildings that remains today were rebuilt after a fire in 1729. The main gate of Ikō-ji was originally a portion of the Ōtemon Gate of

Nanao Castle was a Muromachi period ''yamajiro''-style Japanese castle located in what is now the city of Nanao, Ishikawa, Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a Historic Sites of Japan, National Histori ...

, but was relocated here after the 1600

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

. It is a designated Shimane Prefectural Tangible Cultural Property. The temple was designated a National Historic Site and its gardens a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 1928. Ikō-ji is located approximately three kilometers east of

Masuda Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Masuda, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Lines Masuda Station is served by the JR West San'in Main Line, and is located 514.5 kilomete ...

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

References

External links

Shimane Prefecture Masuda City Tourism Official WebsiteShimane Tourism Federation Website
{in lang, ja 270px, left, Iko-ji Temple gate Buddhist temples in Shimane Prefecture Tōfuku-ji temples Iwami Province Masuda, Shimane Historic Sites of Japan Places of Scenic Beauty Gardens in Shimane Prefecture Shimane Prefecture designated tangible cultural property