Nanrin-ji

• Established: 1554, Shimazu Takahisa
• Dissolved: c. 1869-1870
• Japanese: 南林寺 (Nanrinji)

Nanrin-ji was a Buddhist temple in Kagoshima, which served as a family temple (bodaiji) for the Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma han.

The temple was established by Shimazu Takahisa in 1554 as a branch temple of the Shimazu family temple Fukushô-ji. The Ryukyuan scholar-official Chatan Chôshû died in Kagoshima in 1653 before departing for Edo, and was buried at Nanrin-ji.

It was dissolved in 1869 or 1870, along with a great many other temples in Satsuma domain, as part of the nationwide anti-Buddhist policy of haibutsu kishaku. Matsubara Shrine was established in its place, and remains on the site today.

Some twenty-three graves from Nanrin-ji were moved in 1922 to a new location in Kagoshima's Tokiwa-chô neighborhood, and are maintained today as a site known as the "Saigô Family Graveyard" (Saigô ke no haka).

References

• Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Megumi, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô 31 (2006), 232.