Tōrin-ji (Ishigaki)

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Main hall

The Tōrin-ji ( Japanese. 桃林 寺 ) is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Myōshin branch of the Rinzai school ( 臨 済 宗 妙 心 寺 派 ) on the Japanese island of Ishigaki ( Okinawa Prefecture ). The main deity here is Kannon , the Bodhisattva of compassion.

history

On the occasion of the invasion of the Kingdom of Ryūkyū by troops of the Japanese fiefdom Satsuma in 1609, when prospecting the Yaeyama Islands , it became clear that there were neither Buddhist temples nor Shinto shrines there. Thereupon the feudal lord Shimazu Tadatsune arranged for the two-year king Shō Nei (1564-1620) to build this complex, which was completed in 1614.

The 170 cm tall temple guards ( 仁王 , niō ) in the entrance gate, created by Kudeken Shōchū ( 久 手 堅 昌 忠 ) in 1737, are made of magnolia wood ( Michelia compressa ) from the Yaeyama Islands . They were washed away by a tsunami in 1771 , later found on the beach and restored. In 1942, the architect and architectural historian Itō Chūta ( 伊 東 忠 太 , 1867–1954) first drew attention to the importance of these sculptures. They are now part of Okinawa Prefecture's important cultural heritage .

The Gongen Hall ( 権 現 堂 , Gongen-dō ), which is used to worship the manifestation of Buddhist deities in the form of Shinto deities ( kami ) , was also rebuilt in the decade after this tsunami . It is dedicated to the Shinto deities Izanami -no-mikoto, Hayatamao-no-Mikoto and Kotosakao-no-Mikoto and is now an important cultural asset of Japan . With the separation of Shinto and Buddhism ( Shinbutsu bunri ) in the early Meiji period , the Gongen Hall was separated from the temple as a Shinto building by a wall.

literature

  • Itō Chūta: Ryūkyū - kensetsu bunka [ Ryūkyū's building culture]. Tōkyō: Tōhō Shobō, 1942.
  • Gregory Smits: Recent Trends in Scholarship on the History of Ryukyu's Relations with China and Japan . In: Hans Dieter Ölschleger, ed .: Theories and Methods in Japanese Studies: Current State and Future Developments: Papers in Honor of Josef Kreiner. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress, Göttingen, 2007.
  • George Kerr: Okinawa - The History of an Island People . Tuttle, 2000.

Web links

Commons : Tōrin-ji (Ishigaki)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

gallery

  • Gate building

  • Gatekeeper (Deva, Un- Form)

  • Gatekeeper (Deva, A -form)

  • Bell tower

  • Gongen Hall

Coordinates: 24 ° 20 ′ 37 ″  N , 124 ° 9 ′ 20 ″  E