Located at the foot of Mt. Ashitaka in the northern part of the city of Numazu (shizuoka,Japan),Daichuji is a Zen Buddhist temple belonging to the Myoshinji branch of the Rinzai Sect.
In addition to its “temple name”(jigo),Daichuji has a “mountain name “(sango),which is Sawada-yama, referring to the name of the neighborhood district in which it is located. In themain hall of the temple, which stands in the middle of roughly three and a half acres of natural forest constituting the grounds of Daichuji , an image of the Buddhist deity deity Fudo Myoo is enshrined as the principle object of worship.
Daichuji was founded by Muso Soseki. However, it is said that there was a already temple in this location prior to his arrival, which belonged to the Shingon Sect of esoteric Buddhism, a history that is shared with the other ancient temples of this region. The look of things at that time is urely reflected in the eyes of Fudo Myoo, one of the most important deities of esoteric Buddhism.
In 1313, Muso Soseki, who was then 39 years old, formed a hermitage together with 7 or 8 disciples in an area of Mt. Ashitaka called Sankyo,4 kilometers to the north of Daichuji’s current location, where they practiced ascetic training. It is believed that this hermitage was later moved and reestablished as a Rinzai temple, which in all probability was Daichuji.
The irrigation water that flows behind the main hall originates from Mt. Ashitaka. Legend has it that this mountain stream was led to Daichuji some 668 years ago by Muso Soseki. When he came down the mountain, he repeated over and over ”come this way, come this way,” a request to which the water yielded, following the path he has marked out with his walking stick. This water flow has played a central role in the efforts made by the successive generations of priests at Daichuji to build, maintain, and manage the garden.
Among them, Gensho-osho, who became the head priest in 1875, undertook a major restoration of the garden in October of 1891. IN his writings, he describes the way the temple grounds looked at the time as “a dense forest of old trees-pine, oak, camphor, and camellia trees-growing so luxuriantly as to shroud the sky and giving rise to the appearance of deep and quiet mountain valleys.”
The first visit to Daichuji by the Emperor Taisho was in 1897, at the age of 18(he was at that Time the Crown Prince). He stopped by again the following year while on the way to MT.
Ashitaka to go hunting. Subsequently, a plum garden, for which Daichuji is well known even today, was initiated with planting several hundred plum trees in 1898, so as to provide Imperial Villa in Numazu. Already more than 100 years have passed since the plum garden was completed in 1900.
In The History of Daichuji, Gensho-osho describes what he aimed for when building a garden:“simply strive to do your best to accord to ‘nature’, without adding anything artificial;and, as for the trees, don’t stick your hands in the sod and try to straighten things up, don’t try to stand out by collecting all sorts of rare trees and stones, do nothing more than plant a hundred plum trees. ” In this way, he poured his energy into building gardens that made the best possible use of the beauty inherent in nature.
Gensho-osyo named his quarters Go-ai Go-bai An(“I love Plums”)and took on the name Baizen(“Plum Zen”),both of which utilize the Chinese character for “plum,” which is pronounced bai in Japanese. It should be noted in passing that he was also very skilled in Chinese verse. It was primarily around the time that Gensho-osyo was head priest that Daichuji maintained a special relation with the Imperial Villa, welcoming visits by the Empress Shoken(9 times), the Emperor Taisho(5 times), the Empress Teimei(2 times), and the Emperor Showa(6 times). In the later years of her life, the Empress Shoken came to have a special fondness for the Zen aesthetics of mountain temples such as Daichuji, and other members of the Imperial Family also enjoyed visiting here from time to time. They often come by car or horse-drawn carriage-passing through country scenes budding with the yellow blossoms of rape plants, stretching out as far as could be seen, the green hue of wheat, and the singing of the larks-to enjoy viewing the plum blossoms or cherry blossoms, searching for bamboo shoots, hunting, and so on.
In 1909, a special hall, which is named Onkoden, was built at Daichuji as a resting room for the Imperial Family. Partly in the style of Art Nouveau, Onkoden is one of the few remaining Meiji period wooden buildings in Numazu. Even the great scholar Chushu Mishima, imperial tutor to the Emperor Taisho and founder of the famous Nishougakusha School, refers to Onkoden in one of his Chinese-style poems as the “little provincial Palace.”
In many places around the grounds of the temple, we can find monuments that were built to mark the close ties established between Daichuji and the Imperial Household. Today, these serve as reminders of a past time of glory.
In passing, let us note that the main hall of the temple was built in 1859 whereas the main gate was erected in 1841.
Thus Daichuji is thought to convey the atmosphere of an ancient temple with a comparatively rich and distinguished history. This is due to fact that, located on the outskirts of the city, it was fortunate enough not to have faced the devastation of war, and that it has been protected and maintained single mindedly by generation after generation of head priests.
Occasionally, for example when I pause for a moment in the garden to reflect on the passing of the season, the scene before me, which I usually gaze at absently, inspires me and I fall into a type of reverie. Such is the occasion when I see myself following the previous generations of priests down a straight and certain path that stretches out over two thousand and five hundred years.
In today’s post-war society, there no longer exists much sense of a time or place of tranquility,which people in the past used to associate with expressions like ”dream hall”(a meditation hall) or “thatched hut “ (a place for ascetic practices such a meditation or the tea ceremony).But at Daichuji we still give great importance to carrying on the tradition of what Gensho-osho had called “nature’s nature.” It is my heartfelt wish that the visitors to this temple will discover that yesterday’s feelings of tiredness have disappeared and return with fresh inspiration for tomorrow after immersing their minds in “nature’s nature.”
October 10,1999
Koetsu Shimoyama
Head Priest, Daichuji
In addition to its “temple name”(jigo),Daichuji has a “mountain name “(sango),which is Sawada-yama, referring to the name of the neighborhood district in which it is located. In themain hall of the temple, which stands in the middle of roughly three and a half acres of natural forest constituting the grounds of Daichuji , an image of the Buddhist deity deity Fudo Myoo is enshrined as the principle object of worship.
Daichuji was founded by Muso Soseki. However, it is said that there was a already temple in this location prior to his arrival, which belonged to the Shingon Sect of esoteric Buddhism, a history that is shared with the other ancient temples of this region. The look of things at that time is urely reflected in the eyes of Fudo Myoo, one of the most important deities of esoteric Buddhism.
In 1313, Muso Soseki, who was then 39 years old, formed a hermitage together with 7 or 8 disciples in an area of Mt. Ashitaka called Sankyo,4 kilometers to the north of Daichuji’s current location, where they practiced ascetic training. It is believed that this hermitage was later moved and reestablished as a Rinzai temple, which in all probability was Daichuji.
The irrigation water that flows behind the main hall originates from Mt. Ashitaka. Legend has it that this mountain stream was led to Daichuji some 668 years ago by Muso Soseki. When he came down the mountain, he repeated over and over ”come this way, come this way,” a request to which the water yielded, following the path he has marked out with his walking stick. This water flow has played a central role in the efforts made by the successive generations of priests at Daichuji to build, maintain, and manage the garden.
Among them, Gensho-osho, who became the head priest in 1875, undertook a major restoration of the garden in October of 1891. IN his writings, he describes the way the temple grounds looked at the time as “a dense forest of old trees-pine, oak, camphor, and camellia trees-growing so luxuriantly as to shroud the sky and giving rise to the appearance of deep and quiet mountain valleys.”
The first visit to Daichuji by the Emperor Taisho was in 1897, at the age of 18(he was at that Time the Crown Prince). He stopped by again the following year while on the way to MT.
Ashitaka to go hunting. Subsequently, a plum garden, for which Daichuji is well known even today, was initiated with planting several hundred plum trees in 1898, so as to provide Imperial Villa in Numazu. Already more than 100 years have passed since the plum garden was completed in 1900.
In The History of Daichuji, Gensho-osho describes what he aimed for when building a garden:“simply strive to do your best to accord to ‘nature’, without adding anything artificial;and, as for the trees, don’t stick your hands in the sod and try to straighten things up, don’t try to stand out by collecting all sorts of rare trees and stones, do nothing more than plant a hundred plum trees. ” In this way, he poured his energy into building gardens that made the best possible use of the beauty inherent in nature.
Gensho-osyo named his quarters Go-ai Go-bai An(“I love Plums”)and took on the name Baizen(“Plum Zen”),both of which utilize the Chinese character for “plum,” which is pronounced bai in Japanese. It should be noted in passing that he was also very skilled in Chinese verse. It was primarily around the time that Gensho-osyo was head priest that Daichuji maintained a special relation with the Imperial Villa, welcoming visits by the Empress Shoken(9 times), the Emperor Taisho(5 times), the Empress Teimei(2 times), and the Emperor Showa(6 times). In the later years of her life, the Empress Shoken came to have a special fondness for the Zen aesthetics of mountain temples such as Daichuji, and other members of the Imperial Family also enjoyed visiting here from time to time. They often come by car or horse-drawn carriage-passing through country scenes budding with the yellow blossoms of rape plants, stretching out as far as could be seen, the green hue of wheat, and the singing of the larks-to enjoy viewing the plum blossoms or cherry blossoms, searching for bamboo shoots, hunting, and so on.
In 1909, a special hall, which is named Onkoden, was built at Daichuji as a resting room for the Imperial Family. Partly in the style of Art Nouveau, Onkoden is one of the few remaining Meiji period wooden buildings in Numazu. Even the great scholar Chushu Mishima, imperial tutor to the Emperor Taisho and founder of the famous Nishougakusha School, refers to Onkoden in one of his Chinese-style poems as the “little provincial Palace.”
In many places around the grounds of the temple, we can find monuments that were built to mark the close ties established between Daichuji and the Imperial Household. Today, these serve as reminders of a past time of glory.
In passing, let us note that the main hall of the temple was built in 1859 whereas the main gate was erected in 1841.
Thus Daichuji is thought to convey the atmosphere of an ancient temple with a comparatively rich and distinguished history. This is due to fact that, located on the outskirts of the city, it was fortunate enough not to have faced the devastation of war, and that it has been protected and maintained single mindedly by generation after generation of head priests.
Occasionally, for example when I pause for a moment in the garden to reflect on the passing of the season, the scene before me, which I usually gaze at absently, inspires me and I fall into a type of reverie. Such is the occasion when I see myself following the previous generations of priests down a straight and certain path that stretches out over two thousand and five hundred years.
In today’s post-war society, there no longer exists much sense of a time or place of tranquility,which people in the past used to associate with expressions like ”dream hall”(a meditation hall) or “thatched hut “ (a place for ascetic practices such a meditation or the tea ceremony).But at Daichuji we still give great importance to carrying on the tradition of what Gensho-osho had called “nature’s nature.” It is my heartfelt wish that the visitors to this temple will discover that yesterday’s feelings of tiredness have disappeared and return with fresh inspiration for tomorrow after immersing their minds in “nature’s nature.”
October 10,1999
Koetsu Shimoyama
Head Priest, Daichuji