- Japanese: 浄光明寺 (joukoumyou ji)
Jôkômyô-ji is a 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[2] establish this temple.
Shimazu Yoshitaka was later buried here, before his grave was eventually relocated to Fukushô-ji.
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.
- ↑ Plaques on-site in Kanmachi, Kagoshima.[1]
- ↑ Second son of Hiki Yoshikazu and nephew of Tadahisa's mother Tango no tsubone.