Jokomyo-ji (Kagoshima)

From SamuraiWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
Jôkyômyô-ji as it appears today
  • Established: 1187, Giasessei shônin
  • Other Names: 松峯山 (shouhouzan)
  • Japanese: 浄光明寺 (joukoumyou ji)

Shôhô-zan Jôkômyô-ji is a Ji sect 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 establish this temple as a family temple (bodaiji) for the Shimazu clan. Tadahisa[2] and the four succeeding heads of the family were buried at Jôkômyô-ji;[3] Shimazu Yoshitaka (1675-1747; 21st family head) was also buried here, before his grave was eventually relocated to Fukushô-ji.

The temple remained closely associated with the Shimazu clan throughout the Edo period, and Ryukyuan officials visiting or resident in Kagoshima regularly paid formal visits to Jôkômyô-ji, as well as to Nansen-in and Fukushô-ji.[3]

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.
  1. Plaques on-site in Kanmachi, Kagoshima.[1]
  2. A grave identified as Tadahisa's can also be found in Kamakura, however.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Megumi, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô 31 (2006), 237.