Home

Kamakura Transport
Kamakura Itinerary
Kamakura Tours
Great Buddha of Kamakura
Engakuji Temple
Hase Temple
Kenchoji Temple
Kotokuin Temple
Tsurugaoka Shrine
Zeniarai Benten

Shonan
Enoshima

KANTO
Kamakura
Hakone
Narita
Narita Airport
Nikko
Tokyo
Yokohama

JAPANESE TOPICS
Japan Travel
Tokyo
Kyoto
Japan
Japanese Culture
Japanese Translation
Japan Pictures
Japan Map
Japanese Girls
Japan Forum
Link Exchange
Site Map
Contact

Make Japanese Lifestyle your homepage

Copyright 2001 - 2009
mi marketing Pty Ltd. ACN 098 375 145 trading as Japanese LifeStyle. All Trademarks belong to their respective owners.

This Site Web

?
Questions about travel in Japan. Ask them in our
travel forum.

ENGAKUJI TEMPLE

Engakuji Temple is one of the most important Zen Buddhist Japanese temples in Japan. Engakuji Temple contains several items designated national treasures of Japan.

Engakuji Temple, formally known as (円覚寺)Zuirokuzan Engaku Kōshō Zenji (瑞鹿山円覚興聖禅寺 ), is one of the most important Zen Buddhist Japanese temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa prefecture to the south of Tokyo. It is very close to the Kita-Kamakura railway station on the Tokyo to Yokosuka line, and indeed the railway tracks cut across the formal entrance to the temple compound, which (showing Chinese influence) is by a path beside a pond which is crossed by a small bridge.

The temple was founded in 1282 by a Chinese Zen monk at the request of the then ruler of Japan, the regent Hōjō Tokimune after he had repelled a Mongolian invasion in the period 1274 to 1281. Tokimune had a long-standing commitment to Zen and the temple was intended to honour those of both sides who died in the war, as well as serving as a centre from which the influence of Zen could be spread. According to the records of the time, when building work started a copy of the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment (in Japanese, engaku-kyō 円覚経) was dug out of the hillside in a stone chest during the initial building works, giving its name to the temple.

The fortunes of the temple have waxed and waned over the centuries. Its present form is owed to the Zen priest Seisetsu, who reconstructed and consolidated it towards the end of the Edo era. In the Meiji era, Engaku-ji became the chief centre for Zen instruction in the Kantō region; Kosen Roshi and Soyen Shaku were successively abbots in this period, and Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki was a student under them. Zazen courses are still held in the temple.

Fire has damaged many of the buildings at different times, and the dates given below refer to the building of the structures currently seen. From the entrance, the buildings of the temple rise up a wooded hillside, with the major buildings in a straight line in the Chinese style; the austere buildings and the trees blending in a satisfying overall composition. There are altogether 18 temples on the site.

Among the buildings and other monuments are:

• the two-storied main gate, or Sanmon (三門), with framed calligraphy by the Emperor Fushimi;
• a large modern Butsu-den (仏殿; main hall; 1964)
• Shari-den (舎利殿; reliquary hall), built in the sixteenth century in the style of the Chinese Song dynasty, which houses what is claimed to be a tooth of the Buddha;
• the thatched Butsunichi-an (仏日庵) which is the burial site of Hōjō Tokimune;
• Ōbai-in (黄梅院), a small thatched temple containing a statue of Kannon;
• Great Bell (大鐘 ,Ōgane) (1301), at 2.5 metres tall the largest of all the many temple bells of Kamakura.

Of these, the Shari-den and Great Bell have been designated as national treasures of Japan.

There is an admission fee (as of 2009, 300 yen) for visitors to enter the temple complex, and additional similar charges to enter a few of the buildings. Booths selling tourist items are located near the entrance, below the San-mon, and there are refreshment facilities in the garden of the Shari-den and at the platform where the Great Bell is located, from where there are extensive views across the valley to other temple complexes in the Kita-Kamakura neighbourhood, such as Jōchi-ji and Tōkei-ji.

(Article based on Wikipedia article and used under the GNU Free Documentation License)

Japan Hotels

Japan Rail Pass

Find answers to your questions about Yokohama in our Japan travel forum.

Yokohama Japan Hotels
Cheap Hotels Yokohama
Discount Hotels Yokohama
Accommodation Yokohama Japan
Hotels in Yokohama
Hotel Yokohama Japan