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

Setagaya is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orchid, and its tree is the '' Ze ...

Ward of

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. The temple is also called , after a famous image in one of its chapels. The temple is noteworthy as being the 17th on the Bandō Sanjūroku Fudōson Reijō

pilgrimage route A pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is o ...

of 36 temples in the

Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...

dedicated to

Fudō Myōō or Achala (, "The Immovable", ), also known as (, "Immovable Lord") or (, "Noble Immovable Lord"), is a wrathful deity and '' dharmapala'' (protector of the Dharma) prominent in Vajrayana Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism., Jp. rel. dict., ...

. The temple currently belongs to the Shingon-shū Chisan-ha school of

Japanese Buddhism Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185－1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was cont ...

Overview

Mangan-ji claims to have been founded in the

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 ...

, but subsequently fell into disrepair. It was revived in 1470 as a chapel for one of Setagaya Castle's outlier fortifications, Todoroki Castle. It developed into a seminary temple. During the

Tenbun , also known as Tenmon, was a after '' Kyōroku'' and before '' Kōji''. This period spanned from July 1532 through October 1555. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1532 : At the request of Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the 12th ''shōgun'' of t ...

era, (1532 to 1555), the temple was located from Todoroki to its present location. During 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 ...

it was awarded a stipend of 13

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 ...

by 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 ...

for its upkeep. Around this time, the mountain name was changed from Iozan (医王山) to Chikozan (致航山) and its primary object of worship was changed from Yakushi Nyōrai to Dainichi Nyōrai; however, the temple was more famous as spot for popular worship for its statue of Jizo Bosatsu, which in popular imagination was thought to be able to grant a single wish to any worshipper. The temple has the grave of Hosoi Kōtaku (1658-1736) a noted Edo period Confucian scholar,

calligrapher Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an exp ...

and seal carver. His grave was designated a National Historic Site in 1949. The inscription on the plaque above the Main Gate of the temple is also in Hosoi's calligraphy.

Todoroki Fudō

Located near the temple's original location at a ravine in the

Tama River The is a major river in Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures on Honshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by the Government of Japan, Japanese government. It is long, an ...

is the subsidiary chapel of . 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 an image of Fudō Myōō claimed to have been made in the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

. According to temple legend, a Heian period priest named Kakuban dreamt that he needed to enshrine this statue somewhere in

Musashi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Kawasaki and Yokohama. ...

in a place with abundant water. After searching for a suitable location, he selected the Todoroki Ravine, with its river and several waterfalls. The current temple was rebuilt in the Edo period, and its main hall and main gate were relocated from Mangan-ji in 1952 and 1968 respectively.

References

External links

official website
{{Buddhist temples in Japan Buddhist temples in Tokyo Shingon temples Buildings and structures in Setagaya Musashi Province Temples of Shingon-shū Chisan-ha