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 city of

Habikino 270px, Habikino city office is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 109,479 in 50918 households and a population density of 4100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . The city is known fo ...

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

, Japan, belonging to the

Kōyasan Shingon-shū is a Japanese sect of Shingon Buddhism. Headquartered on Mount Kōya in Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakaya ...

branch of

Shingon Buddhism 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-j ...

. Its main image is a statue of

Yakushi Nyorai Bhaiṣajyaguru (, zh, t= , , , , ), or ''Bhaishajyaguru'', formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabha-rāja ("Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light"; zh, t=藥師琉璃光(王)如來, , , ), is the Buddha of healing and medicine i ...

. The temple is also popularly known as as it is located in between the temples of Eifuku-ji and Taiseishōgun-ji, which also claim a connection with

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half ...

. The temple precincts are designated a National Historic Site

History

According to tradition, this temple is one of the 48 built by

Soga no Umako was the son of Soga no Iname and a member of the powerful Soga clan of Japan. Conflicting evidence has suggested that Soga no Umako was actually an emperor during the Asuka period. Umako conducted political reforms with Prince Shōtoku during t ...

under the orders of

. However, according to an

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

, it appears that it was constructed around the first year of the Hakuchi (650 AD), or several decades after the death of both gentlemen. It was located on the Takeuchi Kaidō, the ancient highway connecting the capital of Asuka with the coast. From the cornerstones that remain in the precincts, a large-scale temple with a layout patterned after

Hōryū-ji is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in Ikaruga, Nara, Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Built shortly after Buddhism was introduced to Japan, it is also one of the oldest Buddh ...

Ikaruga is a bullet hell shoot 'em up developed by Treasure. It is the spiritual sequel to '' Radiant Silvergun'' (1998) and was originally released in Japanese arcades in December 2001. The story follows a rebel pilot named Shinra as he battles an e ...

existed from the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

to the first half of 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 ...

. he foundations of the Middle Gate, Main Hall,

Pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

and Lecture Hall and

Cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

have been found. It is speculated that this temple had a connection with the Funa clan, a group of '' toraijin'' immigrants from the Korean kingdom of

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...

who had strong connections with

, and who had started to settle in this area at the end of the

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

. The pagoda was destroyed by a fire during the wars of the

Nanboku-chō period The , also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period, was a period in Japanese history between 1336-1392 CE, during the formative years of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi (Ashikaga) shogunate. Ideologically, the two courts fought for 50 ...

and it is uncertain how much of the temple survived. It appears to have been close to an abandoned temple by the early

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 ...

. In 1661 it was revived by priest named Kakue from

Yamashiro Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai. It overlaps the southern part of modern Kyoto Prefecture on Honshū. Aliases include , the rare , and . It is classified as an upper province in the '' Engishiki''. Yamashiro Province included Kyoto it ...

with the support of Sayama and Tannan Domains, only to burn down again during the

Kyōhō , also pronounced Kyōho, was a after '' Shōtoku'' and before ''Genbun.'' This period spanned the years from July 1716 through April 1736. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1716 : The era name of ''Kyōhō'' (meaning "Undergo ...

era (1716-1735), with the exception of its Jizō-do. In 1724, Yanagisawa Yoshisato, the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of Yamato Kōriyama Domain donated a new refectory and guest hall. The temple continued to rebuild through the end of the Edo period as a seminary for the Risshū sect. In the middle of the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

, it changed its affiliation to the Kōyasan Shingon-shū. The temple is located about a 15-minute walk from Fujiidera Station on the Kintetsu Minami Osaka Line. File:Yachuji03 1024.jpg, Jizō-dō File:Yachuji, kondou.jpg, Site of Kondō File:Yachuji, tou.jpg, Site of Three-story Pagoda File:Yachuji, sekkan.jpg, Hichinjo Ikenishi Kofun sarcophagus File:Yachuji, sanmon.jpg, Sanmon

Cultural Properties

* Jizō Bosatsu, standing, wooden, Heian period, Important Cultural Property * Miroku Bosatsu, seated, gold-bronze,

Hakuhō period The was an unofficial of Emperor TenmuNussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hakuhō''" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see'Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File. after '' Hakuchi'' and before '' Such ...

, Important Cultural Property The statue was discovered in a warehouse at the temple in 1918, and is 18.5 cm tall. It has an inscription giving a date of 666 AD.

References

External links

Habikino City home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yachu-ji Buddhist temples in Osaka Prefecture Habikino History of Osaka Prefecture Kawachi Province Shingon temples 7th-century Buddhist temples Historic Sites of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan Osaka Prefecture designated tangible cultural property 7th-century establishments in Japan

History

Cultural Properties

See also

References

External links