Engaku-ji (Okinawa)

• Established: 1492
• Japanese: 円覚寺 (Engakuji)

Engaku-ji was a Buddhist temple on the grounds of Shuri castle on Okinawa. Established in 1492, it was destroyed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, and today only the gates of the temple have been rebuilt.

The temple is named after the Zen temple Engakuji in Kamakura, and was designed by an immigrant Japanese Zen priest based on, or at least inspired by, the pattern or layout of that temple. A temple bell which was to become much celebrated was cast in 1496, and a stone bridge immediately behind the main gate - one of the few elements reconstructed and intact today - was thrown across the pond two years later.

References

• Kerr, George. Okinawa: The History of an Island People. Revised Edition. Tuttle Publishing, 2000. pp109ff.