Fukusho-ji

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Gravestones and surrounding stone lanterns at Fukushô-ji
  • Established: 1394, Sekioku Shinryô
  • Destroyed: 1869
  • Other Names: 玉龍山 (Gyokuryuuzan)
  • Japanese: 福昌寺 (Fukushou-ji)

Fukushô-ji was a Sôtô Zen temple in Kagoshima, which served as the family temple (bodaiji) for the Shimazu clan. At its height, it was the largest temple in Satsuma domain, with some 1500 monks in residence.

A branch temple of Shogakuzan Sôji-ji in Noto province,[1] it was one of the Three Temples of Kagoshima (mikedera, 三ヶ寺), along with Jôkômyô-ji and Dairyû-ji.[2] Though the temple is no longer in operation, the Shimazu clan cemetery which houses the graves of numerous generations of clan heads continues to be maintained on the site. Gyokuryû Middle School & High School now stands on the former site of the Fukushô-ji temple buildings.

The temple was established in 1394 when Shimazu Motohisa invited the Zen priest Sekioku Shinryô to Kagoshima to establish a bodaiji for the Shimazu clan. It later became one of the three largest head temples for monk registrars (僧録, sôroku) in the country, overseeing all the Buddhist monks in southern Kyushu, as well as a chokuganjo, a prayer hall that could be used by the Emperor. Fukushô-ji branch temples were established in numerous locations across Kyushu, Shikoku, and the Chûgoku region.

Fukushô-ji was abolished in 1869, as part of the haibutsu kishaku anti-Buddhist campaigns of the early Meiji period.

Selected Burials

Shimazu family heads

Other Burials

References

  1. 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.
  2. Plaques on-site in Kanmachi, Kagoshima.[1]

External Links