Saihō-ji (西方寺) is a Buddhist temple built in 1706 belonging to the

Jōdo-shū , also known as Jōdo Buddhism, is a branch of Pure Land Buddhism derived from the teachings of the Japanese ex-Tendai monk Hōnen. It was established in 1175 and is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan, along with Jōdo Shins ...

sect in Aoba-ku,

Sendai is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date M ...

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the n ...

. It is rarely called by its formal name by locals, and is more often called Jogi Nyorai or Jogi-san.

History

The temple's main treasure is a scroll depicting

Amida Buddha Amida can mean : Places and jurisdictions * Amida (Mesopotamia), now Diyarbakır, an ancient city in Asian Turkey; it is (nominal) seat of : ** The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Amida ** The Latin titular Metropolitan see of Amida of the Roma ...

, which is kept in the main temple. This scroll is called Jogi Nyorai. The temple is said to have been the location of a

Taira clan The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divi ...

fugitive, who is said to have been hiding out here after the

Battle of Dan-no-ura The was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū. On April 25, 1185 (or March 24, 1185 by the official page of Shimonoseki City), the fleet of the Minamoto clan ( ...

, when

Taira no Sadayoshi {{family name hatnote, Taira, lang=Japanese Taira no Sadayoshi (平貞能) was a governor of Higo and Chikugo provinces in Kyūshū, and a samurai commander for the Taira clan during the Genpei War of the 1180s. Following the war, his life was s ...

, a senior vassal of

Taira no Shigemori was the eldest regent of the Taira clan patriarch, Taira no Kiyomori. He supported his father in the Heiji Rebellion. He died two years before his father. His son, Taira no Koremori, became a monk in 1184, and drowned himself. Oda Nobunaga c ...

, enshrined the Amida Nyorai scroll and prayed for the repose of the souls of

Emperor Antoku was the 81st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1180 through 1185. During this time, the Imperial family was involved in a bitter struggle between warring clans. Minamoto no Yo ...

and the Taira clan. Eight hundred years ago, the belongings of the young Emperor Antoku, who died with the Taira clan in Dannoura Bay in 1185, were buried under trees on the temple grounds. Over the decades, the trees merged and grew together to form a single tree, which today is one of the important landmarks of Saihoji.

Timeline

* On July 7, 1198,

Sadayoshi Sadayoshi (written: 定義, 定良 or 貞義) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese philosopher, writer and critic *, Japanese baseball manager *, Japanese field hockey player *, Japanese samurai *, ...

passed away at the age of 60, and in accordance with his will, his retainers built a small chapel over his grave and enshrined a scroll depicting Amida Buddha. * In 1706, Genbei Hayasaka, a descendant of the vassal, became a monk, took the name Kanrensha Ryonen, and founded the temple as Gokurakuzan Saihō-ji. * In 1927, a new mausoleum was completed, covering the old one located above Taira Sadayoshi's grave. * The current bell tower was completed in 1930. * The current temple gate was completed in 1931. * On May 16, 1933, the Sendai Takanobu Sadayoshi group donated a temple bell. * On October 6, 1986, the first five-story pagoda in Miyagi Prefecture was completed at this temple. * In November 1999, the current main hall was completed and the principal image was moved there from the mausoleum (Teiyo Hall)

Gallery

File:Saihouji-temple Sadayoshi-do.JPG, The mausoleum of

File:Saihouji-temple Sanmon.jpg, The

Sanmon A , also called , is the most important gate of a Japanese Zen Buddhist temple, and is part of the Zen '' shichidō garan'', the group of buildings that forms the heart of a Zen Buddhist temple.JAANUS It can be often found in temples of other de ...

gate of the temple File:Храм Сайходзи (Сэндай) - пятиярусная пагода.jpg, The temple's five-tiered pagoda

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saiho-ji (Sendai) Jōdo-shū temples Buddhist temples in Miyagi Prefecture Buildings and structures in Sendai Taira clan