is a temple of the Myoshin-ji

Myoshin-ji

is a temple complex in Kyoto, Japan. The Myōshin-ji school of Rinzai Zen Buddhism is the largest school in Rinzai Zen. This particular school contains within it more than three thousand temples throughout Japan, along with nineteen monasteries. The head temple was founded in the year 1342 by the...

 branch of Japanese Rinzai School of Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka

Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka

is one of three wards of the city of Shizuoka, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, located in the eastern part of the city.-Geography:Shimizu is located on the coast of Suruga Bay of the Pacific Ocean and covers a wide area from a coastal plain to the hills...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, 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...

.

History

According to the oral tradition, Shōgen-ji was initially built as a Tendai

Tendai

is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...

 temple during Saicho

Saicho

was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school in Japan, based around the Chinese Tiantai tradition he was exposed to during his trip to China beginning in 804. He founded the temple and headquarters of Tendai at Enryaku-ji on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto. He is also said to have...

's visit to Eastern Japan in 817. At that time, the temple's name was most likely spelled differently, i.e. as . Later, in the Kamakura period

Kamakura period

The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....

 the temple was transferred to the Rinzai School and renamed to its present spelling borrowing the characters of the Jōgen (also read as Shōgen) imperial era (承元, 1207–11).

Historically verifiable records indicate that during the Muromachi period

Muromachi period

The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...

 the temple was selected as one of regional "peace-protection temples" by the Muromachi bakufu. It was burned to the ground during Takeda Shingen

Takeda Shingen

, of Kai Province, was a preeminent daimyo in feudal Japan with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period.-Name:Shingen was called "Tarō" or "Katsuchiyo" during his childhood...

's invasion of Suruga. In the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 a Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 shrine named "Divine Protection Mountain" was added to the rebuilt temple's premises, hence the full title of the temple at present is Shingosan Shōgen Ankoku Zen-ji .

The present abbot of the temple is poet, translator and Zen master, Sōiku Shigematsu

Sōiku Shigematsu

is a Japanese priest of Myoshin-ji branch of Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism, abbot of Shōgen-ji Temple in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, author and translator of books and essays on Zen that were instrumental in spreading interest in Zen literary tradition to the West in the latter half of the 20th century...

.

Location

Take a bus headed to Tadanuma Shako 但沼車庫 from Okitsu Station

Okitsu Station

is a railway station on the Tōkaidō Main Line of Central Japan Railway Company in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka city, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The station is 164.3 rail kilometers from Tokyo Station.- Station history:...

 (approx. 10 min) or Shimizu Station

Shimizu Station (Shizuoka)

is a railway station on the Tōkaidō Main Line of Central Japan Railway Company in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The station is 169 rail kilometers from Tokyo Station.- Station history:...

(approx. 30 min), exit at Shōgenji Mae 承元寺前, walk down across the river for 10 min. Otherwise take a taxi from Okitsu Station.

Address: 299 Shōgenji-cho, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Japan 424-0201.

External links

• http://maps.google.co.jp/maps/place?rls=com.microsoft:ja:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%E5%9C%B0%E5%9B%B3%E3%80%80%E6%89%BF%E5%85%83%E5%AF%BA%E7%94%BA&fb=1&gl=jp&hq=%E6%89%BF%E5%85%83%E5%AF%BA%E7%94%BA&hnear=%E9%9D%99%E5%B2%A1%E7%9C%8C%E9%9D%99%E5%B2%A1%E5%B8%82&cid=11176152490597031847 Coordinates and contact details in Japanese.