Virtual New Mutsu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Shuroku-sai Temple

 

     Shuroku-ji Temple was founded in Natori County, Mutsu Province, in 798.  The county is supposed to have been organized in the 7th century.  The county was first documented on November 15th, 729, in a thin wooden strip used to write on.  The temple came to belong to the Tiantai Sect in 807.

     Between Yuriage Beach and the mountains, there is a cluster of ancient burial mounds, Iinozaka Kofun Cluster.  The cluster consists of 2 square-style burial mounds and 5 larger two-conjoined-rectangle-type burial mounds, which are supposed to have been constructed from the end of the 4th century to the 5th century.  The presence of so many two-conjoined-rectangle-type burial mounds in one location is unique.  That is, the prehistoric rulers in the area had somewhat different culture from the Royal Family and their allies.

     In the 5th century, there appeared 2 gigantic keyhole-shaped burial mounds; the bigger one is called Raijinyama Kofun and the other is called Tomizuka Kofun.  It is unknown whether those who were buried in the keyhole-shaped burial mounds were the hereditary rulers who became more powerful and who imported the culture from the central part of Japan, or they came from the central part of Japan to conquer the area.  Anyway, they weren't appointed to be Kuninomiyatsuko as a local ruler.  The Kuninomiyatsuko system was established in the 5th century and lasted till the end of the 6th century, when the Kori system was introduced to replace Kuninomiyatsuko.  The Kori system was soon replaced by the province-and-county system in the 7th century.

     It is unknown whether the rulers in the Natori area appeared too late to be appointed to be Kuninomiyatsuko or were regarded too foreign to be domestic local rulers.

     In the 16th century, the temple's name was changed from Shuroku-ji to Shuroku-sai.  A few temples have -sai in their names.

     Many temples in Japan have jigo (namely temple name), and the others have ingo (namely cloister name).  Some of them even have sango (namely mountain name).  The most complicated name of a temple consists of the three names.  When a temple has 3 names, sango (mountain name) comes first, then the either ingo (cloister name) or jigo (temple name) comes second (not necessarily ingo comes second, as is sometimes suggested), and then comes the rest.

     Sango comes from China.  Buddhism first reached China during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) as a foreign mysterious religion.  It was accepted by intellectuals during the Eastern Han Dynasty, connecting Wuwei concept (literally meaning inexertion, inaction, or effortless action) in Taoism with the concept of Sunyata (translated most often as emptiness, vacuity, and sometimes voidness) in Buddhism.  After the Six Dynasties (220-589), Buddhism flourished so much that they had many temples with the same name, as you may notice even in Japan today.  They came to put a place name before the name of a temple.  As Buddhist temples flourished, they accumulated wealth.  There were about 4,600 monasteries, 40,000 hermitages, 260,500 monks and nuns.  In 840’s, Emperor Wuzong (814-846) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) initiated the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism to confiscate their properties.  In 846, the Emperor Wuzong died, and the persecution was over.  However, Buddhism never completely recovered except some Chan temples in mountains which stood aloof from the worldly businesses.  Under the Kamakura Shogunate, Japan imported Chan Buddhism with the custom to put a place name (= a mountain name) before a temple name.  The custom spread to other Buddhism sects and schools.

     Ingo literally means a cloister name.  The suffix “-in” was an honorific title.  After Emperor Saga (786-842) abdicated in 823, he was called Saga-in with respect.  That was the first example of using the suffix “-in” for a retired emperor.  Those days, a retired emperor meant a cloistered emperor.

     When Fujiwara Senshi (962-1002), the mother of Emperor Ichijo (980-1011), retired as an empress dowager, she was given an honorific title “-in” for the first time as a woman.  And then some royal family members were given the honorific title “-in”.  And then the temples where those with “-in” titles as the head priests came to be also called with the suffix “-in”.  That was the start of ingo (cloister names) for temples.

     As the ancient aristocracy collapsed, the naming custom spread to other ruling classes, such as samurais, and so did ingo for temples.  Many temples with ingo in the middle of the three, use it to show the high status of them.

     Meanwhile, the suffix “-in” also meant retirement, sub-temples for retired priests in the precincts of large temples came to be named with it.  And then the naming custom spread to other sub-temples and even branch temples.  Those temples put their ingo usually at the tail of the three.

     At first, Japan had only 46 temples.  In the Kamakura Period, there were over 13,000 temples.  In the Edo Period, the number exceeded 0.4 million.  In those days, -an, -sai, and -bo were also used as jigo.  An means a thatched-roofed hut.  Sai means a study.  Bo means a house for a monk.  After the Meiji Restoration, the number of temples decreased to about 70 thousand.

Address: Kamikanohigashi-88 Takadateyoshida, Natori, Miyagi 981-1242

Phone: 022-384-7270

Kasui-sai Temple

Address: 2915-1 Kuno, Fukuroi, Shizuoka 437-0061

Phone: 0538-42-2121

Raijinyama Kofun

Address: Yama−1, Umematsu, Natori, Miyagi 981-1226

Phone: 022-384-2111

Tomizuka Kofun

Address: 23, Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai, Miyagi 984-0823