Hongan-ji
Hongan-ji ( Japanese本 願 寺; dt. About "Temple of the Original Vow") is the name for a number of Buddhist temples of the amidistic Jōdo-Shinshū in Japan . It mainly refers to the temple complex in the Shimogyō-ku district of the city of Kyoto , which has been divided since 1602 : in the west the Nishi Hongan-ji (西 本 願 寺) and in the east the Higashi Hongan-ji (東 本 願 寺).
The temple has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Kyoto since 1994, along with other sites (Kyōto, Uji and Ōtsu) .
history
founding
The origins of Hongan-ji go back to the burial place of Shinran Shōnin, the spiritual father of the Jōdo-Shinshū, in Ōtani (at the foot of Mount Higashiyama in the Higashiyama-ku district of Kyoto). It was moved further west to the residence of his daughter, Kakushin-ni (覚 信 尼; 1224–1283), and her second husband, Onomiya Zennen, in 1272, ten years after his death . Shinran's students built a small mausoleum for Shinran on the property of Zennen.
In 1275 Zennen ceded the property to his wife. Kakushin-ni in turn ceded it to Shinran's students in 1277, but on the condition that protection and maintenance would be provided by Kakushin-ni and her descendants. Originally a measure because of the low activity of Shinran's students in Kyoto, this became the cornerstone for the principle of succession in the leadership of the Jōdo-Shinshū.
First explicit attempts to establish a temple around the tomb and the mausoleum were made by Kakunyo (覚 如; 1271-1351). The son of Kakushin-ni's first son Kakue (覚 恵; 1238–1307) from his first marriage planned to unite the various religious congregations (門徒, monto ) of amidism in the provinces of Japan under the central authority of a temple. For this purpose, in 1312 he declared the mausoleum to be Senju-ji (専 d 寺; German for "temple of sole practice"). "Senju" was a direct allusion to the central belief of the Shinshū congregations, namely to only chant the Nembutsu . Because of legal problems (Senju representatives were often subjected to draconian punishments by the government) and the immense protests of the monks from Hiei-zan , Kakunyo had to withdraw this name and then renamed the temple Hongan-ji. This name appeared for the first time in a public document in 1321, eleven years later the temple was officially recognized, but only as a branch temple of the Tendai Shōren-in (青蓮 青蓮) in Kyōto.
Rise to power
Rennyo , son of the seventh successor on Hongan-ji, Zonnyo (存 如; 1396-1457), became the eighth successor after his death in 1458. A short time later, the monks of Hieizan destroyed the Hongan-ji, which led to the assumption among the Shinshū congregations in the provinces that the Hongan-ji had become a threat even to the established Tendai-shū because of its power . Rennyo fled to Mii-dera , whose monks were ancient arch rivals of the Hieizan monks, and asked for their protection. Finally, in 1471, he went to Yoshizaki in Echizen Province , from where he established an ever larger following as the center of his activities and Hongan-ji. This happened at the time of the Ōnin War , during which the peasants suffering from the daimyo power struggles were for the first time in Japanese history their own serious military power.
The Hongan-ji believers were directly involved in armed conflicts for the first time in 1474/75. In the conflict between the brothers Togashi Kōchiyo and Togashi Masachika in the province of Kaga , the Hongan-ji had sided with the latter. After his victory in the tenth month of 1474, he tried to get rid of his allies, which were becoming too strong, and attacked the Hongan-ji in Yoshizaki in the eighth month of 1475. Rennyo was able to flee, and in the following years the Hongan-ji believers, who were now to be found in large numbers among the farmers, began to fight back. From 1481 the first, as yet unsuccessful, uprisings from the province of Etchū began , but they were able to win a victory against Togashi in a battle that lasted several months in 1487/88. After that, the province of Kaga was popularly known for a long time as the "province without a master". Loose associations of farmers, local samurai and Shinshu priests of the Hongan-ji controlled the province of Kaga for about a hundred years.
This success made a strong impression among the farmers of the neighboring provinces of Echizen, Etchū and Noto , where similar trouble spots arose. In the Sengoku period, these uprisings quickly became known and feared as Ikkō-ikki (一向 一 Zeit), which means something like: "uprisings ( ikki ) of the sole attitude ( ikkō , a probably pejorative connotation term for the followers of the Jōdo-Shinshū which alludes to their exclusive character) ”. Rennyo controlled a large number of these uprisings or their leaders via countless letters, pamphlets and books, which he sent to the believers for moral strengthening, as well as through the threat of excommunication (through their exclusion from the ōjō , entry into Amida's pure land ) in Trap of disobedience.
Rennyo was successful during all these power struggles, was able to bring several powerful Shinshu congregations under the authority of the Hongan-ji, and in 1478 began construction on a new building for the Yamashina Hongan-ji in Yamashiro Province . In 1489 he resigned from his post and devoted himself to missionary activities and the construction of a Hongan-ji in Osaka (later Ishiyama Hongan-ji ). By the time of his death in 1499, the influence of the Hongan-ji had spread to Ezo ( Hokkaidō ). His son Jitsunyo (実 如; 1458-1525) took over the post of his father and moved the center of Hongan-ji activities to Yamashina , Kyoto.
Climax, descent and split
In 1532, the Hongan-ji in Yamashina was destroyed by Nichiren followers of the hokke ikki (法 華一揆; "lotus uprisings", a movement rivaling the ikkō ikki ). The then seventeen-year-old tenth successor of Hongan-ji, Shōnyo (証 如; 1516–1554), was able to flee to Hongan-ji in Osaka, where the new center of the movement existed from then on. At this time, the power of the Hongan-ji was growing to its peak, as some daimyo had recognized the strength of the Hongan-ji believers and in turn joined the movement to gain power over their rivals. In 1559 Kennyo (顕 如; 1543–1592) was the eleventh successor and received from the Ōgimachi- tennō the official title of monzeki (about: abbot) of the Hongan-ji, which corresponded to an official recognition as a separate Buddhist sect and the Hongan-ji also legally rose to the rank of the most powerful monasteries in Kyoto and Nara .
This power became a thorn in the side of the daimyo Oda Nobunaga at the end of the Sengoku period and the beginning of the Azuchi Momoyama period . In 1570 he led a first, still unsuccessful blow against the Hongan-ji, but had to withdraw and contented himself with destroying the Enryaku-ji and the mighty temple of Hieizan the following year . For years he then led several attacks against Ishiyama Hongan-ji in Osaka, who was strategically very difficult to take. In 1580, by cutting off all supply routes to the temple, he was finally able to force its surrender. Ōgimachi-tennō mediated in the following peace negotiations, which ultimately provided that Kennyo was exiled to the province of Kii .
This caused the ikkō ikki to end for the most part. The material conditions for the discontent of the farmers had not changed, which was reflected in the fact that Kennyo's eldest son Kyōnyo (教 如; 1558-1614) wanted to continue the fight against Nobunaga, which led to a dispute between father and son and the interim Inheritance Kyōnyos (a common means in political-theological questions of succession of the Jōdo-Shinshū) led.
After Nobunaga's murder in 1582, his position was taken over by Toyotomi Hideyoshi . Hideyoshi gave Kennyo a piece of land in 1591 in Horikawa, Kyōto (the site of today's Nishi Hongan-ji ), where the new Hongan-ji Center was now being built.
Kennyo died in the eleventh month of 1592. Quarrels about his successor soon began. Kennyo's widow Nyoshun was of the opinion that it was not the disinherited Kyōnyo, but Kennyo's third son, the then seventeen-year-old Junnyo (准 如; 1577–1631), who should succeed him at Hongan-ji. This view was finally complied with, Kyōnyo abdicated and Junnyo became the twelfth successor.
But Kyōnyo had found a large following because of the refusal to surrender to Nobunaga. In 1596 he went to Osaka and restored the Ōtani Hongan-ji there . Hideyoshi died in 1598 and in the following political turmoil Kyōnyo took advantage of the hour. Shortly before the outbreak of the Battle of Sekigahara , he visited Tokugawa Ieyasu in Ōtsu when the latter was on his march on the capital. After his victory, Ieyasu remembered the support of Kyōnyo and gave him a piece of land in Kyōto, today's property of Higashi Hongan-ji . In 1603, the first year of the Edo period , the temple built there was consecrated with full honors.
The now independently active sects at the two temples were finally officially recognized as such in 1619. These sects, the Honganji-ha (本 願 寺 派; am Nishi Hongan-ji) and the Ōtani-ha (大谷 派; am Higashi Hongan-ji) have remained the largest sects of the Jōdo-Shinshū up to the present day and are among the largest Buddhist sects Associations in Japan at all.
Other temples of the same name
- Tsukiji Hongan-ji , Tokyo
literature
- Daigan Lee Matsunaga and Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. II; The mass movement (Kamakura & Muromachi periods). Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles and Tokyo 1976. ISBN 0-914910-27-2 .