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is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama District
Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto

is one of the eleven Wards of Kyoto in the Municipalities of Japan of Kyoto, Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It was created in 1929 when it was split off from Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto....
 of Kyoto
Kyoto

Sorry, no overview for this topic
, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. Officially known as "Rengeo-in", or Hall of the Lotus King, Sanjusangendo belongs to and is run by the Myoho-in temple, a part of the Tendai
Tendai

is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the China Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.David W. Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:...
 school of Buddhism. The temple name literally means Hall with thirty three spaces between columns, describing the architecture of the long main hall of the temple.

lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m5773851",this)' onMouseout='hide("m5773851")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Taira_no_Kiyomori">Taira no Kiyomori
Taira no Kiyomori

was a general of the late Heian Period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the History of Japan.After the death of his father Taira no Tadamori in 1153, Kiyomori assumed control of the Taira clan and ambitiously entered the political realm in which he had previously only held a minor post....
 completed the temple under order of Emperor Go-Shirakawa
Emperor Go-Shirakawa

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th Emperor of Japan of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158....
 in 1164.






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Sanjusangen Temple
is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama District
Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto

is one of the eleven Wards of Kyoto in the Municipalities of Japan of Kyoto, Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It was created in 1929 when it was split off from Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto....
 of Kyoto
Kyoto

Sorry, no overview for this topic
, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. Officially known as "Rengeo-in", or Hall of the Lotus King, Sanjusangendo belongs to and is run by the Myoho-in temple, a part of the Tendai
Tendai

is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the China Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.David W. Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:...
 school of Buddhism. The temple name literally means Hall with thirty three spaces between columns, describing the architecture of the long main hall of the temple.

History

Taira no Kiyomori
Taira no Kiyomori

was a general of the late Heian Period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the History of Japan.After the death of his father Taira no Tadamori in 1153, Kiyomori assumed control of the Taira clan and ambitiously entered the political realm in which he had previously only held a minor post....
 completed the temple under order of Emperor Go-Shirakawa
Emperor Go-Shirakawa

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th Emperor of Japan of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158....
 in 1164. The temple complex suffered a fire in 1249 and only the main hall was rebuilt in 1266. In January, the temple has an event known as the Rite of the Willow, where worshippers are touched on the head with a sacred willow branch to cure and prevent headaches. A popular archery tournament known as Toshiya is also held here on the same grounds since the Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
.

Important Features

The main deity of the temple is Sahasrabhuja-arya-avalokitesvara
Avalokitesvara

Avalokitesvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhahood. He is one of the more widely revered bodhisattvas in mainstream Mahayana Buddhism....
 or the Thousand Armed Kannon
Kuan Yin

Guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as veneration by East Asian Buddhism, usually as a female. The name Guanyin is short for Guanshi'yin which means "Vipassana the Sounds of the Samsara"....
. The statue of the main deity was created by the Kamakura
Kamakura shogunate

The Kamakura shogunate was a feudal military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura, Kanagawa....
 sculptor
Sculpture

Sculpture is Three-dimensional space artwork created by shaping or combining hard and or plastic material, sound, and or text and or light, commonly Stone sculpture , metal, glass, or wood....
 Tankei
Tankei

Tankei was a Japan sculpture of the Kei school, which flourished in the Kamakura period. He was the student of and son of the master sculptor Unkei....
 and is a National Treasure of Japan
National treasures of Japan

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the government of Japan designates the most famous of the nation's cultural properties as National Treasures ....
. The temple also contains one thousand life-size statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon which stand on both the right and left sides of the main statue in 10 rows and 50 columns. Of these, 124 statues are from the original temple, rescued from the fire of 1249, while the remaining 876 statues were constructed in the 13th century. The statues are made of Japanese cypress
Chamaecyparis obtusa

Chamaecyparis obtusa is a species of cypress native to central Japan.It is a slow-growing tree which grows to 35 m tall with a trunk up to 1 m in diameter....
. Around the 1000 Kannon statues stand 28 statues of guardian deities. There are also two famous statues of Fujin
Fujin

is the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods. He was present at the creation of the world and when he first let the winds out of his bag, they cleared the morning mists and filled the Gate between heaven and earth so the sun shone....
 and Raijin
Raijin

is a god of thunder and lightning in Japanese mythology. His name is derived from the Japanese language words rai and shin . He is typically depicted as a demon beating drums to create thunder, usually with the symbol tomoe drawn in the drums....
.

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