Jokomyo-ji (Kagoshima)
- Established: 1187, Giasessei shônin
- Other Names: 松峯山 (shouhouzan)
- Japanese: 浄光明寺 (joukoumyou ji)
Shôhô-zan Jôkômyô-ji is a Ji sect Buddhist temple in Kagoshima, a branch temple of Tôtaku-zan Jôkômyô-ji in Kamakura. It was one of the Three Temples of Kagoshima (mi-ke-dera, 三ヶ寺), along with Fukushô-ji and Dairyû-ji.[1]
When Shimazu Tadahisa was named shugo of Satsuma, Ôsumi, and Hyûga provinces in 1187, he had the monk Giasessei shônin establish this temple as a family temple (bodaiji) for the Shimazu clan. Tadahisa[2] and the four succeeding heads of the family were buried at Jôkômyô-ji;[3] Shimazu Yoshitaka (1675-1747; 21st family head) was also buried here, before his grave was eventually relocated to Fukushô-ji.
The temple remained closely associated with the Shimazu clan throughout the Edo period, and Ryukyuan officials visiting or resident in Kagoshima regularly paid formal visits to Jôkômyô-ji, as well as to Nansen-in and Fukushô-ji.[3]
The temple was destroyed in the 1863 bombardment of Kagoshima by the British Royal Navy, and was abolished amid the haibutsu kishaku anti-Buddhism policies of the first years of the Meiji period. In 1877, Iwamura Michitoshi saw to it that Saigô Takamori and a number of his men killed in the Satsuma Rebellion were buried at the former site of the temple, thus establishing the Nanshû Cemetery, which continues to be maintained today. Jôkômyô-ji was re-established at some point, and stands just outside the cemetery.
References
- Miyagi Eishô 宮城栄昌, Ryûkyû shisha no Edo nobori 琉球使者の江戸上り, Tokyo: Daiichi Shobô (1982), 80-81.
