is a

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 belonging to the

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- ...

school, located in the city of Uda,

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

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 ...

. The temple shows typical aspects of Shingon Buddhism, with its buildings laid on the mountainside of , and historically served as a place of worship for the Japanese dragon , associated with rain prayers. Unlike many temples of the time, Murō-ji was opened to females. For that reason, the temple is also called ''Mount Kōya for women''. Its five storied pagoda is one of the oldest standing pagodas in Japan, dating its construction to the 9th century.

History

While legend has it that the temple was founded by the monk En no Gyōja by order of

Emperor Tenmu was the 40th Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 天武天皇 (40) retrieved 2013-8-22. according to the traditional order of succession. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan'', p. 53. He ascended ...

, and later restored by

Kūkai , born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...

, an extant record kept by the temple, , tells that a successful ritual in respect of a local dragon spirit to cure Prince Yamabe (later Emperor Kanmu)'s illness made the imperial court order a monk from the nearby temple of Kōfuku-ji, named , to construct a new temple on the site. Historically, the temple acted as a place of worship for a Japanese dragon spirit associated with Ryūjin known as , and rain prayer offerings were traditionally held there. The numerous caves spread around Mount Murō were believed to be carved out by said dragon, and are still considered sacred. During most of its history, Murō-ji was a subtemple of Kōfuku-ji, from the nearby city of

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

. Monks from Kofuku-ji were regularly sent to Murō-ji for summer prayer retreats, or , until its separation in 1694. The Ryūketsu Shrine used to be part of the Murō-ji complex until 1868, as efforts were made to separate

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 ...

and Buddhist institutions.

Present

Worship of the Murō dragon continues to the present day in the form of a festival called the Autumn Ryūketsu Shrine festival. During the month of October, two figures of a dragon in

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry wikt:stalk, stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the crop yield, yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, ry ...

are placed on the grounds of Murō-ji and on the road to the Shinto Ryūketsu Shrine. The next day, the head priest of Murō-ji begins a

procession A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner. History Processions have in all peoples and at all times been a natural form of public celebration, as forming an orderly and impressive ceremony. Religious ...

between the temple and the Ryūketsu Shrine, stopping to conduct rituals in favor of the two straw dragon figures. While rain prayer practices are absent, the Murō dragon still serves as an important tradition of the temple and the nearby Shinto shrine. Among the buildings that remain on the temple complex from the ninth century is the five-storied pagoda, which is the smallest of the kind standing in the open air. The pagoda suffered major damage in a 1998 typhoon, when a falling tree struck it. It was restored over the following two years.

References

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muroji National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan Pagodas in Japan Buddhist temples in Nara Prefecture Uda, Nara

History

Present

See also

References

External links