is a historic

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

temple in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

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 ...

, and head temple of its associated branch of

Rinzai 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 of ...

Buddhism. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto ''Gozan'' or "five most important Zen temples of Kyoto".

History

Kennin-ji was founded in 1202 CE and claims to be the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. The temple was a replica of public Chinese monasteries found

Zhejiang Province ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

, which Japanese monks often frequented during the thirteenth century. The monk

Eisai was a Japanese Buddhist priest, credited with founding the Rinzai school, the Japanese line of the Linji school of Zen Buddhism. In 1191, he introduced this Zen approach to Japan, following his trip to China from 1187 to 1191, during which he w ...

, credited with introducing Zen to Japan, served as Kennin-ji's founding abbot and is buried on the temple grounds. For its first years the temple combined

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 ...

, and

Shingon is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...

practices, but it became a purely Zen institution under the eleventh abbot, (1213–1278). However, the various elements that Eisai is said to have adopted from Japanese Tendai were actually elements associated with

Chan Buddhism Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning " meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song ...

from the public monasteries of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. Ground plans from the Song dynasty still exist for three prominent monasteries in

that Eisai visited: Tiantong Mountain, Tiantai Mountain, and Bei Mountain. These plans reveal monastery layouts that were quite diverse, accommodating a wide range of Buddhist practices. It's highly probable that Eisai drew inspiration for the Shingon Hall he constructed at Kenninji from Chinese monasteries. The Calming and Insight Hall at Kenninji may have been influenced by one Eisai encountered at Tiantai Mountain. The Zen master

Dōgen was a Japanese people, Japanese Zen Buddhism, Buddhist Bhikkhu, monk, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. He is also known as Dōgen Kigen (), Eihei Dōgen (), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (), and Busshō Dent� ...

, later founder of the Japanese

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, Cáodòng school, which was founded during the ...

sect, trained at Kennin-ji. It is one of the

sect's headquarter temples.

Kennin-ji school

Kennin-ji is the main temple of the Kennin-ji branch, one of the 14 divisions of the

sect. The branch is regarded to have 72 temples throughout Japan, and approximately 25,000 adherents.

Architecture

When first built, the temple contained seven principal buildings. After suffering from fires through the centuries, it was rebuilt in the mid-thirteenth century by Zen master

Enni Enni Ben'en (圓爾辯圓; 1 November 1202 – 10 November 1280) or simply Enni, also known as Shōichi Kokushi, was a Japanese Buddhist monk. He started his Buddhist training as a Tendai monk. While he was studying with Eisai, a vision of ...

. In the 13th century, it was damaged by fighting during the

Onin War Onin may refer to: * Ōnin, a Japanese era ** Ōnin War * Onin peninsula, on the Bomberai Peninsula of Indonesian Papua * Onin language, an Austronesian language spoken on the peninsula {{Disambiguation ...

as well as several unrelated fire incidents, precipitating its reconstruction during the 16th century with donations of buildings from nearby temples Ankoku-ji and

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 ...

. Due to further damage and destruction in the succeeding centuries (including the

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 Meiji, the romanization of the Japanese characters 明治, may refer to: Japanese history * Emperor Meiji, Emperor of Japan between 1867 and 1912 ** Meiji era, the name given to that period in Japanese history *** Meiji Restoration, the revolution ...

era), many of its structures were also rebuilt during the

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

period and the

Meiji Meiji, the romanization of the Japanese characters 明治, may refer to: Japanese history * Emperor Meiji, Emperor of Japan between 1867 and 1912 ** Meiji era, the name given to that period in Japanese history *** Meiji Restoration, the revolution ...

, Taisho and Showa eras, such as the ''Kuri'' (rebuilt in 1814), the ''Reito-in'' (rebuilt in 1853) and the ''Kaisan-dō'' (rebuilt in 1884). Today Kennin-ji's buildings include the Abbot's Quarters (''Hōjō''), given by Ankoku-ji in 1599; the Dharma Hall (''Hatto''), built in 1765; a tea house built in 1587 to designs by tea master

Sen no Rikyū , also known simply as Rikyū, was a Japanese tea master considered the most important influence on the ''chanoyu'', the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of '' wabi-cha''. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspect ...

for

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

; and the Imperial Messenger Gate (''Chokushimon''), said to date from the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, and still showing marks from arrows. It also has 14 subtemples on the Kennin-ji precincts and about 70 associated temples throughout Japan. In 2002, the architectural setting was enhanced by a dramatic ceiling painting of two dragons by

Koizumi Junsaku was a Japanese painter and pottery artist. Biography Koizumi was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa in 1924. In 1952, he graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (present name Tokyo University of the Arts; Jap. 東京芸術大� ...

(1924–2012). The piece was first painted in the sport hall of a former Elementary school. This bold artwork was installed to commemorate the temple's 800th anniversary. The dragon symbolises the rain of Buddhist teachings. The

Shōkoku-ji , formally identified as , is a Buddhist temple in northern Kyoto, first founded in 1382 by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, with the existing temple complex having undergone several periods of extensive reconstruction and rebuilding in the succeeding eras. ...

in Kyoto also features a dragon on the ceiling of its main hall.

Artworks

Wind God and Thunder God Screens by Tawaraya Sotatsu hi-res

Kennin-ji contains notable paintings by Tamura Sōryū and

Hashimoto Kansetsu Hashimoto Kansetsu (, November 10, 1883 – February 26, 1945) was a painter of nihonga (Japanese-style paintings) who was active in the Kyoto art world during the Showa and Taisho eras. Born in Kobe, he was the son of the painter Hashimoto ...

. '' Fujin and

Raijin , also known as , , , , and Kamowakeikazuchi-no-kami is a god of lightning, thunder, and Storm, storms in Japanese mythology and the Shinto and Buddhism, Buddhist religion. He is typically depicted with fierce and aggressive facial expressions ...

'', a pair of two-fold screens by

Tawaraya Sōtatsu was a Japanese furniture designer and painter of the Rinpa school. Sōtatsu is best known for his decorations of calligraphic works by his partner Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637), and his spectacular and highly influential ''byōbu'' folding s ...

, are currently on display at the

Kyoto National Museum The is one of the major art museums in Japan. Located in Kyoto's Higashiyama ward, the museum focuses on pre-modern Japanese and Asian art. History The Kyoto National Museum, then the Imperial Museum of Kyoto, was proposed, along with the Imp ...

. On the left is Raijin (雷神), a god of lightning, thunder, and storms in the Shinto religion and in Japanese mythology. On the right is Fūjin (風神) or Futen, the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods. He is portrayed as a terrifying wizard-like demon, resembling a red headed green-skinned humanoid wearing a leopard skin, carrying a large bag of winds on his shoulders. According to the Kennin-ji website, "Twin Dragons" by

"commemorates the 800-year anniversary of Kenninji's founding, and a ceremony to mark its installation was given in April 2002. It measures 11.4m by 15.7m (the size of 108 tatami mats) and is drawn with the finest quality ink on thick traditional Japanese paper. It was created in the gymnasium of an elementary school in Hokkaido and took the artist just under two years to complete."

Notes

References

* Dumoulin, Heinrich. (2005)
''Zen Buddhism: A History'' (Vol. II: Japan).
Bloomington, Indiana:

World Wisdom World Wisdom is an independent American publishing company established in 1980 in Bloomington, Indiana. World Wisdom publishes religious and philosophical texts, including the work of authors such as Frithjof Schuon, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Titus ...

. * ''Kennin-ji: The Oldest Zen Temple in Kyoto'', undated brochure from temple * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1956). ''Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869.'' Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society.

External links

Kennin-ji official web site

Kyoto Prefectural Tourism Guide Kennin-ji

Buddhist Travel Kennin-ji

The Buddhist Channel, "Kenninji key to Japan's tea culture
{{Authority control 1200s establishments in Japan 1202 establishments in Asia Buddhist temples in Kyoto Important Cultural Properties of Japan Kennin-ji temples 13th-century Buddhist temples Temples of Gautama Buddha Kyoto Prefecture designated tangible cultural property