Myoden-ji
- Japanese: 妙傳寺 (Myouden-ji)
Myôden-ji is a Nichiren Buddhist temple in Kyoto.
It was founded by Nichii, a monk who converted from Tendai to Nichiren Buddhism, and who felt that since the pilgrimage from Kyoto to Minobu-san (a sacred mountain in Yamanashi prefecture) was too far and too difficult, he should establish a Mt. Minobu temple in Kyoto. Nichii therefore took some of Nichiren's bones (i.e. relics) from Minobu-san, and installed them in a temple he built at the intersection of Nishinotôin and Ayanokoji.
In 1536, in what is known as the Tenbun Hokke no Ran, monks from Enryaku-ji set fire to twenty-one Nichiren temples. Myôden-ji was moved to Sakai, and moved back to Kyoto the following year.
It was rebuilt at Nishinotôin at that time, but when Toyotomi Hideyoshi built his Jurakudai some decades later, the temple was moved again, this time to Teramachi-Takeyamachi. After a terrible fire in 1708, the temple was finally moved to its current location, at Higashi-ôji-Nijô.
References
- Plaques on-site.
