Seiken-ji
- Japanese: 清見寺 (Seiken-ji)
Seiken-ji is a Buddhist temple in Shizuoka City (formerly known as Sunpu). It is the site of the grave of a Ryukyuan Crown Prince who died in Sunpu in 1610, and the temple was visited by Ryukyuan embassies in 1710, 1714, 1749, 1764, 1791, 1806, 1830, and 1850.
Crown Prince Shô Kô, younger brother to King Shô Nei, died at Sunpu in 1610 after being taken hostage, following the 1609 invasion of Ryûkyû by samurai forces from Satsuma han. He was buried at Seikan-ji, and his grave became a customary stop made by the Ryukyuan embassies to Edo for the remainder of the Edo period. In 1790, Prince Ginowan Chôshô (also known as Shô Yô erected a new gravestone. A framed piece of calligraphy by Ginowan Chôshô, also donated to the temple at that time, hangs inside the temple's main hall (hondô), along with a number of similar plaques associated with Korean embassies to Edo.
Other objects held by the temple and associated with Ryûkyû include a set of bronze lanterns, six scrolls of memorial writings prepared between 1710 and 1752, eight scrolls of memorial writings prepared between 1764 and 1850, an old sanshin today displayed in the zashiki (parlor) of the temple's main hall, and a number of tenmoku ceramics and lacquerwares today held in the temple's Treasure House.
References
- Watanabe Miki. "Nihon ni okeru Ryûkyû shiseki." (personal website)
