Enmei-ji (Imabari)

Main hall

Plan of the temple (see text)

The Enmei-ji ( Japanese 延命寺 ) with the Go Chikamizan (近見山) and Hōshōin (宝鐘院) is a temple of the Buzan direction (豊山派) of Shingon Buddhism in the city of Imabari (Ehime Prefecture). In the traditional count, it is the 54th temple on the Shikoku pilgrimage route .

history

According to tradition, the temple was laid out at the request of the emperor Shōmu (reign 724 to 749) by priest Gyōki on the 244 m high mountain Chikamizan, where he made a sculpture of the holy Fudō (不動明王), who is in the Dainichi -Buddha (大日如来) transformed. Later, at the request of the saga , priest Kūkai rebuilt and expanded the temple complex (伽藍, Garan) to include teaching buildings and gave it the names Enmyōzan (圓明山) and Fudōin (不動院). It stays that way until the Meiji Restoration , but because there was already the 53rd temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage in Matsuyama in this spelling, the Enmyō-ji , this was now officially related to the people in the Edo period . The temple was ravaged by fires repeatedly until it was finally moved from the mountaintop of Chikamiyama to the foothill about 2 km south in 1727, where it has been since then.

During the Kamakura period , priest Gyōnen (凝然; 1240-1321) built a hermitage in a western side valley in 1268, in which the beginners introduced Buddhism with a textbook he called "Hasshū kōyō".

The attachment

After you have passed the Niō gate (仁王門) and crossed a parking lot, you reach the temple gate (山門, Sammon; 1). This was a gate of Imabari Castle and was moved here when it was demolished. Immediately behind it is the Yakushi hall (薬師堂; 5) and on the right, surrounded by trees, the small bell tower (鐘楼, Shōrō; 4). In advance you reach the main hall (本堂, Hondō; 2) via a few steps. The front section shows a curved "gable section in the Chinese style" (唐破風, Karahafu). - The somewhat secluded hall, which is dedicated to the temple founder, the Daishidō (大師堂; 3), can be reached via a staircase.

On the temple grounds there are the second oldest stone pilgrimage markers of the priest Shinnan (真念, early Edo period ) and the Aseba trees (馬酔木), which bloom white from November to January.