Dannohorin-ji

• Founded: 1272, Ryôe
• Other Names: 悟真寺 (Goshinji), 朝陽山 栴檀王院 無上法林寺 (Chouyouzan sendannouin mujou hourin ji)
• Japanese: 壇王法林寺 (Dannou hourinji)

Dannôhôrin-ji is a Jôdo shû (Pure Land) Buddhist temple in Kyoto which claims to hold the oldest maneki neko (inviting cat) statue in the country.

The temple was founded in 1272 as Goshin-ji by the monk Bôseirô Ryôe, with the approval or support of Emperor Kameyama. Ryôe then taught the teachings of Hônen there, and made it a center for spreading the teachings of devotion to the nenbutsu. The temple survived for some time, but was destroyed and rebuilt in fires and other disasters a number of times, finally being destroyed in the 1550s or 1560s, and not rebuilt.

The monk Taichû, after introducing Pure Land Buddhism into the Ryûkyû Kingdom, returned to Kyoto in 1611 and made his retreat on the former site of the destroyed Goshin-ji, naming it Chôyô-zan Sendannô-in Mujôhôrin-ji. In 1619, Taichû passed the abbotship of the temple over to his disciple Dannô, and retired to a site near Higashiyama Gojô-zaka. Prior to his retirement, however, Taichû received a number of gifts from King Shô Nei of Ryûkyû which remain in the temple's collection today. These include a lacquerware chair, several other pieces of Ryûkyû lacquerware, an impression of a famous calligraphic inscription by Sima Guang, and perhaps most significantly, a portrait of Taichû by Shô Nei himself, inscribed too with calligraphy by the king himself.

Under Dannô, the temple built a new hondô (Main Hall) to house a statue of Amida said to have been carved by Eshin. About a century later, in the 1730s or 1740s, the temple came to house the mortuary tablets of Tôfukumon-in (granddaughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu and empress consort of Emperor Go-Mizunoo). From that time forward, the temple was able to incorporate both the chrysanthemum crest of the Imperial household and the mitsuba aoi (three-leaf hollyhock) crest of the Tokugawa clan into its architecture or decor in certain limited ways.

References

• Dannôhôrin-ji Official Website.
• "Kyoto wo aruku" 京都を歩く, Momoto モモト 14 (April 2013), n.p.

External Links

• Dannôhôrin-ji on Google Maps.