Engaku-ji (Okinawa)

Engaku-ji as it appears today, with elements of the entry area rebuilt. The central areas of the temple grounds remain completely unrestored.

• 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.

Engaku-ji was also closely tied to a Benten-dô located in a pond nearby on the castle grounds; a particularly important set of Buddhist texts from Korea, gifted to the kingdom by Korea, were kept here until they were stolen and taken back to Japan during the 1609 invasion of Ryûkyû.

References

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