Tōshō-ji

Coordinates: 35°19′13.56″N 139°33′32.93″E / 35.3204333°N 139.5591472°E / 35.3204333; 139.5591472
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Seiryūzan Tōshō-ji
Rinzai
StatusClosed as of 1333
Location
CountryJapan
Architecture
FounderHōjō Yasutoki, Taikō Gyōyū
Completed1237

Tōshō-ji (東勝寺) was the

Nameri river's deep gorge and by steep hills on the other three sides, and besides offering a clear view of the only road that crossed the river, it was a fortress surely valuable to the family also from the military point of view.[2]

At the site is a plaque that reads:[4]

National Historic Sites
- The remains of Toshoji as designated on July 31, 1998 Toshoji is a Buddhist temple founded in the first half of the 13th Century by Yasutoki Hojo, the third vice-shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. In 1333, when Yoshisada Nitta and his troops attacked Kamakura, Takatoki Hōjō, all members of his clan, and his followers shut themselves up in this temple, set it on fire, and there, met their death.

The temple was restored soon after this incident, and in the

Sengoku Era
(1467-1573).

The site is extremely important from an historical viewpoint as the remains of the main temple of the Hojo dynasty, and as the final resting place of the Kamakura Shogunate. By a series of excavations conducted in 1976, 1996, and 1997, part of the remains of the temple has been confirmed.
Board of Education, Kamakura City, March 2000

Excavations in situ have revealed the basic structure of the temple, shards of Chinese pottery, and roof tiles bearing the Hōjō family crest.[2] Stones and other surfaces singed by fire were also found, confirming the presence of a fire.[2]

The Hōjō Takatoki Harakiri Yagura

About a hundred meters uphill after the temple, inside the forest lies the Hōjō Takatoki Harakiri Yagura, the cave where, according to tradition, the last of the Hōjō regents disemboweled himself.[2] There are however other locations in Kamakura that make the same claim.

The black stele in front of Takatoki's yagura reads:.[5]

In May 1333, when Nitta Yoshisada invaded Kamakura, Regent Hōjō Takatoki left his residence in Komachi and barricaded himself in Tōshō-ji, the family temple where all his ancestors were buried. After that, while watching from afar the lights and smoke of the fires consuming the shops and residences of the entire city of Kamakura that his family had ruled for 150 years, he and his whole family, composed of over 870 people, committed suicide. This tragic act that ended the Hojo's power forever took place here.
Erected in March 1918 by the Kamakuracho Seinendan

Hōkai-ji.[6] Because the neighborhood was said to be still haunted by the ghosts of the Hōjō, a shrine called Tokusō Gongen was erected within the new temple to placate them.[6] The shrine still exists and can be seen to the right of Hōkai-ji's main hall.[6]

On the Shakadōgayatsu side of the

Shakadō Pass, just before the first houses, a small street to the left takes to a large group of yagura called Shakadōgayatsu Yagura-gun.[7] There rest the bones of some of the Hōjō who killed themselves at Tōshō-ji that day.[7] Their identity has been confirmed by the presence of a gorintō dated exactly eight days after the invasion, eight days being the time required by Buddhism before a funeral can be performed.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "A Guide to Kamakura". History. January 2006. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kamiya Vol. 1 (2006/08: 53- 55)
  3. Genkō 3, 22nd day of the 5th month) using Nengocalc Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine. Nengō based on Nitta Yoshisada's date of entry taken from Kamiya (2006:237). The date May 22, 1333 used for example by Japanese Wikipedia's article Hōkai-ji
    is correct, but lunar.
  4. ^ Original text preserved, including misspellings and other errors
  5. ^ Original Japanese text available here
  6. ^ a b c Mutsu (1995/06:279-80)
  7. ^ a b c Kamiya Vol. 1 (2006/08: 71 - 72)

References

  • Kamiya, Michinori (August 2000). Fukaku Aruku - Kamakura Shiseki Sansaku Vol. 1 (in Japanese). Kamakura: Kamakura Shunshūsha.
    ISBN 4-7740-0340-9
    .
  • OCLC 33184655
    .

35°19′13.56″N 139°33′32.93″E / 35.3204333°N 139.5591472°E / 35.3204333; 139.5591472

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