Shomyoji (in Yokohama)

• Official Name: Kintakusan Miroku-in Shomyoji
• Religious sect: Shingon Ritsu Sect, Buddhism
• Founded: in 1267 by Sanetoki Kanesawa (1224-1276)
• Founding priest: Shinkai
• Main object of worship: Statue of Miroku Bosatsu
• Address: 212 Kanazawa, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 236-0015
• Area size: 75,300 square meters
• Location: 900 meters east of Kanazawa Bunko Station, Keihin Kyuko Railway, or Keikyu for short
• Time needed to get there: 15 minutes
• Admission: Free (Open yard)
• Kanazawa Bunko Library: 250 yen
• Open (Library): 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Closed on Monday.
• Phone: 045-701-9573

Access Map

Historical Overview

In ancient days, the Kanazawa district in Yokohama was the eastern gateway to Kamakura connecting it to Boso Peninsula, the opposite shore of Tokyo Bay, and boats carrying goods to and from Kamakura arrived and left here. The Third Hojo Regent Yasutoki Hojo (1183-1242) granted this district to his younger brother Saneyasu Hojo (1208-1263) for his villa.

Saneyasu's son Sanetoki was talented from his youth and played a key role in the Hojo regime. At the age of 29, he assumed the post similar to today's Supreme Court judge. He also served the Shoguns, the Sixth Shogun Munetaka (1242-1274) in particular, as an immediate aide.

Among the scholars who came from Kyoto down to Kamakura accompanying Munetaka was Noritaka Kiyohara (1199-1265), a Confucianist. Kiyohara helped develop an academic circle in Kamakura, where was then thought to be a samurai community after all and far less advanced than Kyoto with respect to culture, education and scholarship. Amid the poor conditions, Sanetoki learned a lot from Kiyohara and collected a good number of books, which later developed into the Kanazawa Bunko, one of the oldest private library in Japan.

At the same time, Sanetoki became s devout follower of Priest Eison (1201-1290), the de-facto founder of the Shingon Ritsu Sect. Priest Eison is also known as the founder of Saidaiji in Nara, the mother temple of the entire Shingon Ritsu. He once visited Kamakura in 1262 at the invitation of Sanetoki and ordained leaders in Kamakura, including Sanetoki himself

The Temple was originally built in 1260 by Sanetoki to console his mother's soul at her 6th anniversary of death. He thought Priest Ninsho (1217-1303), the founding priest of Gokurakuji (Shingon Ritsu sect), would be the best for the Temple's founding priest as well. However, Priest Ninsho declined his offer saying he was too busy founding Gokurakuji. Instead, he nominated Priest Shinkai (1229-1304) of Yakushiji in Tochigi Prefecture, another great Shingon Ritsu temple (but, no longer exists today), to be the founding priest. Thus, Priest Shinkai joined the Temple in 1267 and stayed at the chief priest's post for as long as nearly 37 years. Unfortunately, Sanetoki was of weak health and had to retire from the official jobs at age 50. Thereafter, he lived here in Kanazawa resort.

Sanetoki's son Akitoki (1248-1301) was also a lover of learning. His wife was daughter of Yasumori Adachi (1231-1285), a member of the powerful and leading vassal family of Yoritomo Minamoto, the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate, and held an influential position even in the Hojo regime. In 1285, however, the family was drawn into a power struggle with the Hojo, and finally the Adachis were destroyed (see Amanawa Shrine for details). Akitoki, who was on a key post in the Hojo Regime, was implicated in the struggle and exiled to Chiba Prefecture. Before the exile, he had transferred to the Temple all the real estates he had owned in Kanazawa, and as soon as he was released, he took Buddhist vows in the Temple with the Buddhist title 'Enichi'.

Love of learning in their family seems to be inherited from one generation to the next. Sanetoki's son Sadaaki (1278-1333) too had a keen intellectual appetite and collected plenty of academic materials and documents. As he was stationed at Rokuhara military station in Kyoto for 13 years from 1303, he was familiar with Kyoto cultures and introduced them to Kamakura.

The Temple was at the height of its prosperity in the early 14th century with a complete set of Shichido-garan, or the seven basic structures. Back at the time, however, the Hojo regime under the 14th Regent Takatoki Hojo (1303-1333) was at stake with the overthrowing plot attempted by the loyalist groups, and the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) was about to end (see History). In 1326, Takatoki resigned from the Regency in the midst of term on the pretext of sickness. Then, Sadaaki was named the succeeding Regent. Meanwhile, Takatoki had a younger brother who thought he was supposed to be the Regent's position. Out of jealousy, he tried to assassinate Sadaaki. Disgusted at the attempt, Sadaaki resigned from his office of Regency ten days later and immediately took the tonsure.

The Kamakura Period ended its one-and-a-half century rule in 1333 with a historic tragedy. When the resurgent loyalist troops attacked and destroyed Kamakura after a fierce battle, 870-odd samurai and related people of the Hojo clan headed by Takatoki committed mass suicide at the temple called Toshoji (no longer exists). Among them was Sadaaki himself. Sadaaki's son Sadayuki (?-1333) also had been killed during the battle.

After the collapse of the Hojo regime and the end of the Kamakura Period, the Temple began to lose its old glory with no specific patrons, but was able to survive getting modest supports from the government authorities of each period thereafter.

Shingon Ritsu Sect

Shingon Ritsu is a mixture of the Shingon Esoteric Buddhism (see Heikenji for details) and Ritsu (Vinaya in Skt.), literally a moral law in Japanese. It is the Chinese Lu Tsung school developed by Chinese priest Tao-hsuan in the 7th century focusing on monastic and religious practice, stressing observance of ethical precepts and disciplinary rules. The thought was originally introduced into Japan by a great Chinese priest named Chien-chen (Ganjin in Japanese) (687-763) in 753. He challenged to make a voyage to Japan four times, all in failure and lost his eyesight, but finally succeeded on its fifth trial. With no priests in Japan qualified to perform initiation ceremonies, he ordained a number of Japanese Buddhists. First among them was Emperor Shomu (701-756), who greatly contributed to the development of the Japanese Buddhism, and founded the world-famous Todaiji in Nara. Priest Chien-chen was welcomed as the founding priest of Toshodaiji in Nara, the headquarters of the Ritsu Sect.

It was Priest Eison that established the Shingon Ritsu combining both tenets in the 13th century while he was the chief priest of Saidaiji in Nara and made it the mother temple of the Shingon Ritsu sect.

Temple Structures

All buildings we see today in the Temple's grounds were reconstructed or repaired after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

Inner Gate
A pair of statues standing at the Temples' gate are Ni-o, or Deva in Skt. The pair are called Kongo-Rikishi , or Vajra-pani in Skt., and are the largest ones in eastern Japan. They are half-naked in threatening aspect and flay away devils with their muscles like Hercules. The right-hand Kongo-Rikishi has its mouth open, saying "ah," while the other's tightly closed saying "ng." The two letters "ah" and "ng" are the first and the last in Sanskrit alphabet, coincide with the Japanese syllabaries referred to as 50 sounds, which also start with "ah" sound and ends with "ng."

The dynamic statues are attributed to a sculptor named Inko (his date of birth and death unknown), who took an active part in the late Kamakura Period as one of the In-school sculptors and fashioned the sedentary statue of Ashuku Nyorai at Kakuonji. The 5.4 meters wide, copper-roofed gate here was reconstructed in 1818.

Ajiga-ike　Pond

The pond with red bridges spanning the gate and the main hall is called Ajiga-ike, or the "Pond of Letter A." The letter A in this case is the very first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet as noted above. The beautiful garden with the pond surrounded by hills on three sides was made complying with the instructions of Sadatoki and designed to express the Pureland Paradise. The original garden was constructed in 1320 and is said to have copied that of Motsuji in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture. What we see today here was restored in 1987 based on the ancient 91 by 95 centimeters sketch drawn in 1323 by the Third Chief Priest Tan-ei (1271-1347). The Agency for Cultural Affairs gave subsidy for the restoration and it took full ten years before the completion. The red bridge was renewed in April 2009. An ICA. The ancient sketch shows the Temple had the Shichido-garan around the pond. In summer, the vermillion bridges, one flat, the other round, make a sharp contrast with fresh verdure of the surrounding forest.

Main Hall

Although today's inner gate is closed and occasional visitors are not allowed to go through, the Main Hall stands on a straight line connecting to the gate and the bridge over the pond. The gate faces south, the bridge divides the pond east and west, and the nine-meter square Hall is positioned straight ahead.

The statue of Miroku Bosatsu (Maitreya in Skt.) is enshrined deep inside the feretory, which is usually closed and stray worshipers will not be able to catch even a glimpse. It was on public display for two months in 1998 for the first time in the 720 years period, and again in the last quarter of 2000, when the Agency for Cultural Affairs started restoring the two pieces of murals behind the feretory. The murals, of which painters are unknown, depict the descending Miroku Bosatsu and the Miroku Paradise. Not being as popular as the Amida Paradise, the Miroku Paradise was also highly revered by enthusiasts. Miroku is a Bodhisattva living in the Tosotsu-ten, or Tusita Heaven that exists farther up the Mt. Sumeru, the highest mountain in the Buddhist universe. All Bodhisattvas have to stand by here before they become Tathagata and come down to the human realm. Even Sakyamuni lived here before he was born into this world, and Miroku is now promised to be a Tathagata in several billions years ahead, whereby he is called the future Buddha. In China when Buddhism was a dominant religion, emperors and empresses claimed to be the incarnation of Maitreya and it was revered as a folk deity.

Due to the Kanto Great Earthquake in 1923, the statue was partly damaged. During the repair works, an inscription was found inside the statue, which read it was fashioned in 1275 on the instructions of Sanetoki and completed in 1277. Unfortunately, he had died a year before the completion. I was lucky to view the statue on display at the Kanazawa Bunko in October 2000. It was placed on a dais and flooded with lights just like an object in museum. Statues enshrined in temples are usually installed in dark recesses and hardly can worshipers make it out. The Kanazawa Bunko gave us a rare chance to take a closer look at the statue in the light. The crowned statue is 194 centimeters tall, with left hand holding up and the right pointing down. It puts on a necklace-like accessary called yoraku (Keyura in Skt.). An ICA.

In front of the Hall and near the bridge is a Japanese maple tree, which was planted in commemoration of the Noh play "Mutsura" {moo-tsu-rah}. The story goes like this. Once upon a time, a priest from Kyoto was travelling in eastern Japan and stopped by the Temple. It was autumn and the mountains around the Temple were ablaze with autumnal tints. Among the colored trees, he found a maple tree of which leaves were still kept green. The priest asked a local woman why the leaves of the tree remained unchanged. According to the woman, the famous tanka poet Tamesuke Reizei (1263-1328) (see Jokomyoji for details) once visited here and found a maple tree that turned brilliant red whereas no other trees were yet tinged. Moved by the scene, the Poet Reizei read a tanka offhand praising the maple. The forest was so deep that few people were visiting and the maple did not ever expect to be watched by anyone. Nevertheless it was praised by such a famous poet. The maple was touched and thought, "Now that I gained fame and name, I am fully satisfied and should retire." Ever since the maple has never changed the color like an evergreen tree. Hearing the story, the priest from Kyoto also read another tanka for the tree. The local woman thanked him and disappeared revealing that she was the spirit of the maple. That night, the spirit appeared before the priest while he was performing a religious service, and elegantly danced admiring the beauty of nature. Meanwhile, Mutsura is the name of the district near here.

Shakado Hall

Shakado is literally a hall for Shaka Nyorai, or Sakyamuni. As its name indicates, the thatched-roof structure in hogyo zukuri architectural style (its four ridges spread radially) must once have enshrined a statue of Shaka Nyorai. Inside the hall is too dark to make out. I asked a few staff of the Bunko Library what is enshrined in this hall. They were not sure, and one said, "Probably nothing." Then, why is an offertory box placed at the entrance of the hall? Innocent worshipers are throwing in coins. I may have asked the wrong persons, since the Library is run by Kanagawa Prefecture and the Temple is an independent religious institution. The 5.4 meter square structure was reconstructed in 1862.

Kanazawa Bunko Library

Located several kilometers away from Kamakura, the ancient Bunko was able to escape fires that destroyed many valuable assets in Kamakura. Had it been in Kamakura, most of the assets would have been ruined by now. The Temple somehow managed to preserve those valuable assets. However, some of them were seized every now and then by the authorities in power. Those seized by the Tokugawa Shogunate, for instance, are kept today by the Imperial Household Agency.

It was in 1930 that the Bunko started as a library getting financial aid from Shintaro Ohashi (1863-1944), a publisher and industrialist. For precaution against fire, it was built west of the Temple beyond the hill, which protect from fire should it break at the Temple. Today's two-story, modern building was constructed anew in 1990 on the original site. The number of ancient books and writings the Hojo family collected reached more than 30,000 and Kanazawa was once an academic center in eastern Japan. After the collapse of the Hojo regime, however, a considerable part of them was dispersed. Today, it preserves 9,743 ancient books, 3,490 Buddhist scriptures, 4,140 pieces of ancient writings and 280 works of art, including five National Treasures and 21 ICAs. The following are the major treasures preserved by the Bunko. The objects on view changes from time to time.

The statues of Shaka Nyorai and 10 disciples are similar to those installed at Gokurakuji. The 160-centimeter tall Shaka Nyorai statue is Seiryoji style (Seiryoji is a Jodo sect temple in Kyoto) and unique in that its canonical dress covers up to the neck and its hair is like rope-tied. It was fashioned by another In-school sculptor Inpo (his date of birth and death unknown) in 1308 at the 32nd anniversary of Sanetoki's death.

Prince Shotoku (574-622), regarded as the founding father of Japanese Buddhism, chose Buddhism as the official religion of the Imperial Court in the late sixth century, and later proclaimed it as the state religion. His statue, about 25 centimeters tall, was the one when he was two years old and rare to find in Kanagawa. Hokaiji in Kamakura has one of the few. An ICA designated by the City of Yokohama.

Back at the time, paper was a valuable commodity made from non-wood fibers such as mulberry (Broussonetia kazinoki) and mitsumata (Edgeworthia papyrifera), all made by hand, but far stronger than today's paper. (Note: State-of-the-art paper machine today can produce newsprint at a speed of 1,800 meters per minute, which is about thrice as fast as Maurice Greene, the world-record holder for 100-meter dash.) People reused or recycled wastepaper. Among the ancient documents listed on the ICAs is a copy of sutra called Engakukyo, which was hand-written by Sadatoki in 1333. He dedicated it to the souls of his father on the occasion of 32nd anniversary of his father's death. Rather than using new paper, he collected all the letters his father wrote, and recycled it. Black dots appearing on the paper show that the de-inking technology was not yet developed, which are, meanwhile, the solid evidence to show they were recycled. It is the last official documents made by the Kamakura Shogunate and is naturally on the ICA list.

Notes

Hojo, Kanesawa, Kanazawa and Kanagawa
It was Sadaaki who settled in Kanazawa and expanded the Temple as well as Bunko. His family thereafter was called Kanesawa, like Sadaaki Kanesawa to tell from other Hojo families. The district belongs to Kanazawa ward of Yokohama city, not to Kamakura. Both Kanesawa and Kanazawa have the same Chinese characters. Kanesawa is an old pronunciation and today it is called Kanazawa. The nearest stations of Keihin Kyuko Railway are Kanazawa Bunko and Kanazawa Hakkei. Incidentally, Kanazawa and Kanagawa are also similar in alphabetical spelling, but totally different in Chinese characters.

Kanazawa Hakkei, or Eight Scenic Spots
The most beautiful eight spots in Kanazawa district were chosen by the Chinese Priest Shin-etsu (1639-1695). When he visited here in 1694, there were so many scenic spots that he compared them to the eight points of scenic beauty in the Tungtinghu Lake area in Hunan, China. Included among those spots in Kanazawa was the bell in the Temple at dusk. Hiroshige Ando (1797-1858), a famous Ukiyo-e woodblock print (color print of everyday life) painter during the Edo Period (1603-1868), drew pictures of those spots, which made Kanazawa further popular for sightseers. Alas, the district is now a bed town for workers packed with small houses and far from scenic.

Kenko Yoshida (1283-1352)
An essayist famous for his essay entitled Tsurezuregusa (circa 1330), or Essays in Idleness, well known among the Japanese since pieces of his essays often appear on high school textbooks. Though lived mostly in Kyoto, he visited Kanesawa Bunko for three or four times to read the books and materials stored at the Library. Kanazawa Bunko preserves a lot of old documents related to him.

Hiking trail behind the Temple
Behind the Temple is a well-maintained hiking trail in the forest, roughly two kilometers long. It is called Citizen's Forest and supervised by the City of Yokohama. On a Saturday afternoon, I went into the forest on the trail, but did not meet anyone, though there were many visitors in the temple grounds. The Japanese are getting increasingly reluctant to walk. Halfway through the trail are Hokyo-Into and Gorinto for Sanetoki Kanesawa and his family.

The Pond favored by amateur painters
If you visit the Temple on a good weather day in spring or fall, you will find scores of amateur painters enjoy painting around the pond. This is one of the few picturesque spots in the area. Most of them are aged men and women over 60. Those aged Japanese had a bitter experience at their childhood before and after World War II. They lived in dire poverty with no enough food. Now, they can finally afford a slow life-style.

(Updated April 2010)

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