- Other Names: 霊徳山 (Reitoku-zan)
- Japanese: 崇元寺 (Sougen-ji)
Sôgen-ji was a Rinzai Zen temple in Tomari, Okinawa, originally constructed during the reign of King Shô Shin (r. 1477-1526). All that survives of the temple today are its thick, heavy stone gates, which were originally constructed during an expansion of the temple in 1496.
At that same time in 1496, stelae were erected in honor of all the kings of Ryûkyû, making the temple both a shrine to each of the kings of the past, and also a shrine to the kingdom itself. In 1527, a pair of stelae were erected at the gates declaring that all who enter, even the reigning king himself, were expected to dismount before passing through the gates.
The temple was a branch temple of Engaku-ji, the chief Rinzai temple in the kingdom, which was located just outside the grounds of Shuri castle. The grounds of Sôgenji covered more than 1230 tsubo, following a layout with a Chinese flavor, but surrounded by a distinctively Ryukyuan stone wall. When Chinese investiture envoys came to the kingdom, before visiting the castle, they would take part in a ceremony here at Sôgenji in honor of the previous kings. The main buildings of the complex were arranged in a square around an open plaza; entering via the gates to the south and proceeding north, one would first encounter the zendô, or "front hall." Passing through it, one comes to the central plaza, flanked by a West Building (西庁) and East Building (東庁), and with the main shrine (正廟) straight ahead to the north. It was within this building that all the kings of Ryûkyû, from Shunten to Shô Tai, were enshrined, more in the manner of a Chinese Confucian or Daoist temple than that of a Buddhist temple. The kuri (monks' quarters) was located just east of the main shrine building, north of the East Building.
Many of the temple's buildings were declared National Treasures in 1933, but were then destroyed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, leaving only sections of the stone walls/gates intact.
References
- Kerr, George. Okinawa: The History of an Island People. Revised Edition. Tuttle Publishing, 2000. pp109ff.
- "Sôgenji" 崇元寺. Okinawa hyakka daijiten (Okinawa Encyclopedia). vol. 2. Okinawa Times, 1983. pp610-611.