Buddhist temples in Japan

Buddhist temples or monasteries are (along with Shinto shrines) the most numerous, famous, and important religious buildings in Japan. The shogunates or leaders of Japan have made it a priority to update and rebuild Buddhist temples since the Momoyama period (late 16th century). The Japanese word for a Buddhist monastery is tera (寺) (kun reading), and the same kanji also has the pronunciation ji (on reading), so temple names frequently end in -dera (voiced) or -ji. Another ending, -in (院), is normally used to refer to minor temples. Examples of temple names that have these suffixes are Kiyomizu-dera, Enryaku-ji and Kōtoku-in.
The Japanese word for a Buddhist temple, tera (寺), was anciently also written phonetically 天良, tera, and is cognate with the Modern Korean Chǒl from Middle Korean Tiel, the Jurchen Taira and the reconstructed Old Chinese dɘiaʁ, all meaning "Buddhist monastery". These words are apparently derived from the Aramaic word for "Monastery" dērā/ dairā/ dēr (from the root dwr "to live together"), rather than from the unrelated and later Indian word for monastery vihara, and may have been transmitted by the first Central Asian translators of Buddhist scriptures, such as An Shigao or Lokaksema.
In Japan, Buddhist temples co-exist with Shinto shrines and both share the basic features of Japanese traditional architecture. Both torii and rōmon mark the entrance to a shrine, as well as to temples, although torii is associated with Shinto and rōmon with Buddhism. Some shrines, for example Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū, have a Buddhist-style main gate called sōmon. Many temples have a temizuya and komainu, like a shrine. Conversely, some shrines make use of incense or have a shōrō belltower. Others – for example, Tanzan Shrine in Nara – even have a pagoda.
Similarities between temples and shrines are also functional. Like a shrine, a Buddhist temple is not primarily a place of worship: its most important buildings are used for the safekeeping of sacred objects (the honzon, equivalent to a shrine's shintai) and are not accessible to worshipers. Unlike a Christian church, a temple is also a monastery. There are specialized buildings for certain rites, but these are usually open only to a limited number of participants. Religious mass gatherings do not take place with regularity as with Christian religions and are in any event not held inside the temple. If many people are involved in a ceremony, it will assume a festive character and will be held outdoors. The architectural elements of a Buddhist temple are meant to embody themes and teachings of Buddhism.
The reason for the great structural resemblances between the Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines lies in their common history. When Shintoism first encountered Buddhism it became more interpretive as it did not try to explain the universe as Buddhism sometimes tried to. It is normal for a temple to have been also a shrine, and obvious architectural differences between the two are few, such that often only a specialist will notice them. Many visitors to Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines go for similar reasons, such as prayer and for luck. The two religions coexist due to increased popularity of religions and the birth of new religions.
Shrines enshrining local kami existed long before the arrival of Buddhism, but they consisted either of demarcated land areas with no building, or of temporary shrines, erected when needed. With the arrival of Buddhism in Japan in the 6th century, shrines were subjected to its influence and adopted both the concept of permanent structures and the architecture of Buddhist temples.
The successive development of shinbutsu-shūgō (syncretism of Buddhism and kami worship) and of the honji suijaku theory brought to the almost complete fusion of kami worship and Buddhism. It became normal for shrines to be accompanied by temples in mixed complexes called jingū-ji (神宮寺, lit. shrine temple) or miyadera (宮寺, lit. shrine temple). The opposite was also common: most temples had at least a small shrine dedicated to its tutelary kami and were therefore called jisha (寺社, temple shrines). The Meiji era eliminated most jingūji, but left jisha intact, such that even today most temples have at least one shrine, sometimes very large, on their premises, and the Buddhist goddess Benzaiten is often worshiped at Shinto shrines.
As a consequence, for centuries shrines and temples had a symbiotic relationship where each influenced the other. Shrines took from Buddhism its gates (mon), the use of a hall for lay worshipers, the use of vermilion-colored wood and more, while Chinese Buddhist architecture was adapted to Japanese tastes with more asymmetrical layouts, greater use of natural materials, and an adaptation of the monastery to the pre-existing natural environment.
The clear separation between Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, which today is the norm, emerges only as a result of the shinbutsu bunri ("separation of kami and Buddhas") law of 1868. This separation was mandated by law, and many shrine-temples were forced to become just shrines, among them famous ones like Usa Hachiman-gū and Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū.
Because mixing the two religions was now forbidden, jingūji had to give away some of their properties or dismantle some of their buildings, thus damaging the integrity of their cultural heritage and decreasing the historical and economic value of their properties. For example, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's giant Niō (the two wooden wardens usually found at the sides of a temple's entrance), being objects of Buddhist worship and therefore illegal where they were, were sold to Jufuku-ji, where they still are. The shrine-temple also had to destroy Buddhism-related buildings, for example its tahōtō, its midō and its shichidō garan.
Buddhist architecture in Japan is not native, but imported from China and other Asian cultures over the centuries with such constancy that the building styles of all Six Dynasties are represented. Its history is, as a consequence, dominated by Chinese and other Asian techniques and styles (present even in Ise Shrine, held to be the quintessence of Japanese architecture) on one side, and by Japanese original variations on those themes on the other.
Partly due also to the variety of climates in Japan and the millennium encompassed between the first cultural import and the last, the result is extremely heterogeneous, but several practically universal features can be found nonetheless. First of all is the choice of materials, always wood in various forms (planks, straw, tree bark, etc.) for almost all structures. Unlike both Western and some Chinese architecture, the use of stone is avoided except for certain specific uses, for example temple podia and pagoda foundations.
The general structure is almost always the same: post and lintel support a large and gently curved roof, while the walls are paper-thin, often movable and in any case non-carrying. The post and lintel structure embodies the Axis Mundi of an iconic form of the Buddha that is typically represented in pagodas and Indian stupas. Arches and barrel roofs are completely absent. Gable and eave curves are gentler than in China and columnar entasis (convexity at the center) limited.
The roof is the most visually impressive component, often constituting half the size of the whole edifice. The slightly curved eaves extend far beyond the walls, covering verandas, and their weight must therefore be supported by complex bracket systems called tokyō. These oversize eaves give the interior a characteristic dimness, which contributes to the temple's atmosphere. The interior of the building normally consists of a single room at the center called moya, from which sometimes depart other less important spaces, for example corridors called hisashi.
Inner space divisions are fluid, and room size can be modified through the use of screens or movable paper walls. The large, single space offered by the main hall can therefore be altered according to the need. The separation between inside and outside is itself in some measure not absolute as entire walls can be removed, opening the temple to visitors. Verandas appear to be part of the building to an outsider, but part of the external world to those in the temple. Structures are therefore made to a certain extent part of their environment. The use of construction modules keeps proportions between different parts of the edifice constant, preserving its overall harmony. (On the subject of temple proportions, see also the article ken).
Even in cases as that of Nikkō Tōshō-gū, where every available space is heavily decorated, ornamentation tends to follow, and therefore emphasize rather than hide, basic structures.
Being shared by both sacred and profane architecture, these architectonic features made it easy converting a lay building into a temple. This happened for example at Hōryū-ji, where a noblewoman's mansion was transformed into a religious building.
Buddhist architecture of the Heian period consisted of the re-emergence of national tastes. The temple Hojoji represents paradise and the pure land, which embodies elements of Pure Land Buddhism. The last formal temple was Motsuji.
Muroji is a temple complex found below the mountain of Mount Muro. The area behind the temple is sacred and is off limits to visitors and pilgrims. The caves of Mount Muro are especially sacred. The famous Dragon Cave is the thought to house the Dragon King who protects the country. This is an example of how natural elements are sacred aspects of Buddhist temples.
There are four great temples of the seventh century: Asukadera, Kudara Odera, Kawaradera and Yakushiji.
This great hall had three golden halls and was the first full-scale temple. It was the most significant temple in the Asuka period. The founder of Asukadera was Soga no Umako and he had built a smaller scaled residence similar to the great hall. Many royal palaces were built in this natural environment for centuries later. When visited today it barely holds its grandeur it once had as there are no clear marks of where the original halls were and now the main scene is the parking lot with tour buses.
The foundation remains might be those of the remains found on the site of Kibi Pond (Kibi Ike). This grand temple had a nine-story pagoda that was constructed at the beginnings of Buddhism in Japan.
The excavations and reconstruction of Kawaradera help to understand what it originally looked like. The plan originally had two golden halls with a pagoda and then residential spaces for monks. It was in an asymmetrical arrangement that was new and very innovative for this time. Sources lack in the history of its construction and who commissioned it.
In the early eighth century this temple was constructed in Nara and has been reproduced into the original layout today. The monumental Yakushi triad exists here. The structure is in bright colors as it also would have originally been.
The architecture of Buddhist temples, as that of any structure, has changed and developed over the centuries. However, while the particular details may vary, the general themes and styles have strong similarities and common origins.
The already mentioned Hōryū-ji was one of the first Buddhist temples built in Japan. Its primary structures represent the style current in 6th century CE Sui dynasty China. The Kondō (Golden Hall) is a double-roofed structure, supported by thick, strong pillars, and giving a feeling of boldness and weight.
Most Buddhist temples in Japan belong to one of four main styles:
Buddhist temple complexes consist of a number of structures arranged according to certain concepts or guidelines.
The arrangement of the major buildings (garan haichi (伽藍配置)) changed over time. An early pattern had a gate, tower, kondō and kodō in a straight line from south to north. Corridors extended east and west from the flanks of the gate, then turned north, and finally joined north of the kōdo, forming a cloister around the pagoda and the major halls. This pattern, typified by Shitennō-ji in Osaka, came from China via Baekje; the Chinese style of Buddhist temples, though altered somewhat by China via Korean peninsula, ultimately was based on that of Chinese palaces, and this is evident in many of the basic design features that remain today in the temples of all three countries.
A Buddhist temple complex in Japan generally follows the pattern of a series of sacred spaces encircling a courtyard, and entered via a set of gates. These gates will typically have a pair of large guardian statues, called Niō.
In addition, many of the more important or powerful temples are built in locations that are favorable according to the precepts of Chinese geomancy. For example, Enryaku-ji, which sits atop Mount Hiei to the north-east of Kyoto, is said to defend the city from evil spirits by being placed in that direction. The arrangements of mountains and other geographic features in particular directions around the temple play important roles as well. This custom continued for a long time. Eight centuries after the founding of Enryaku-ji, the Tokugawa shogunate established Kan'ei-ji in a similar direction for the protection of their Edo Castle. Its mountain-name, Mount Tōei (東叡山 Tōei-zan), takes a character from Mount Hiei (比叡山 Hiei-zan), and can be interpreted as meaning "the Mount Hiei of the East."
Kamakura's Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū is now only a Shinto shrine but, before the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order (神仏判然令) of 1868, its name was Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū-ji (鶴岡八幡宮寺, Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine Temple) and it was also a Buddhist temple, one of the oldest of the city. The temple and the city were built with Feng Shui in mind. The present location was carefully chosen as the most propitious after consulting a diviner because it had a mountain to the north (the Hokuzan (北山)), a river to the east (the Namerikawa) and a great road to the west (the Kotō Kaidō (古東街道)), and was open to the south (on Sagami Bay). Each direction was protected by a god: Genbu guarded the north, Seiryū the east, Byakko the west and Suzaku the south. The willows near the ponds and the catalpas next to the Museum of Modern Art represent respectively Seiryū and Byakko.
Geomancy lost in importance during the Heian period as temple layout was adapted to the natural environment, disregarding feng shui.
In addition to geomantic considerations, Buddhist temples, like any other religious structures, need to be organized in order to best serve their various purposes. The most important space in any Buddhist temple complex is the sacred space where images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas are kept, and where important rituals are performed.
These areas are always separated from those accessible to the lay worshipers, though the distance between the two and the manner of their separation is quite varied. In many temples, there is little more than a wooden railing dividing the sacred space with that of the laypeople, but in many others there is a significant distance, perhaps a graveled courtyard, between the two.
Another structure or space of great importance accommodates the physical day-to-day needs of the clergy. Spaces for eating, sleeping and studying are essential, particularly in those temples that serve as monasteries.
According to a 13th-century text, "a garan is a temple with a kon-dō (main hall), a tō (pagoda), a kō-dō (lecture hall), a shōrō (belfry), a jiki-dō (refectory), a sōbō (monks' living quarters), and a kyōzō (scriptures deposit, library)." These are the seven listed as shichidō elements of a Nanto Rokushū (南都六宗, Nara six sects) temple.
A 15th-century text describes how Zen school temples (Sōtō (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済)) included a butsuden or butsu-dō (main hall), a hattō (lecture hall), a kuin (kitchen/office), a sō-dō (building dedicated to Zazen), a sanmon (main gate), a tōsu (toilet) and a yokushitsu (bath).
In present-day Japanese, sotoba usually has the latter meaning.
A temple's name (jigō (寺号) or jimyō (寺名)) is usually made of three parts. The first is the sangō (山号, mountain name), the second is the ingō (院号, cloister name) and the third is the san'in-jigō (山院寺号, temple name).
Even though they may be located at the bottom of a valley, temples are metaphorically called mountains and even the numbers used to count them carry the ending -san or -zan (山), hence the name sangō. This tradition goes back to the times when temples were primarily monasteries purposely built in remote mountainous areas. The founding of a temple is called kaisan (開山, lit. opening of the mountain) for this reason.
No fixed rules for its formation exist, but the sangō is basically topographical in origin, as in Hieizan Enryaku-ji: these two names together mean "Mount Hiei's Enryaku-ji". For this reason it is sometimes used as a personal name, particularly in Zen. There may be however some other semantic relationship between the sangō and the san'in-jigō, as for example in the case of Rurikōzan Yakushi-ji. The sangō and the jigō are simply different names of the same god. Sometimes the sangō and the jigō are both posthumous names, for example of the founder's mother and father.
The character in (院), which gives the ingō its name, originally indicated an enclosure or section and therefore, by analogy, it later came to mean a cloister in a monastery. It is in this sense which it is applied to temples or, more often, subtemples. It can be also found in the name of formerly minor temples risen by chance to great prominence. For example, Kawagoe's Kita-in used to be one of three subtemples of a temple which no longer exist. Less frequent in an ingō are -an (庵, hermitage) and -bō (坊, monk's living quarters). -dō (堂, hall) is normally used in the name of particular buildings of a temple's compound, e.g. Kannon-dō, but can be employed as a name of minor or small temples.
The only name in common use is however the jigō, (ending in -ji, -tera, -dera (〜寺, ... temple)) which can then be considered the main one. The sangō and ingō are not, and never were, in common use. The character -ji it contains is sometimes pronounced tera or dera as in Kiyomizu-dera, normally when the rest of the name is an indigenous name (kun'yomi).
Temples are sometimes known by an unofficial but popular name. This is usually topographical in origin, as for example in the case of Asakusa's Sensō-ji, also known as Asakusa-dera. A temple can also be named after a special or famous characteristic, as for example in the case Kyoto's Saihō-ji, commonly called Koke-dera, or "moss temple" because of its famous moss garden. Unofficial names can have various other origins.