Entsu-in Temple（円通院）、Matsushima Miyagi

Entsu-in Temple（円通院） is a Buddhist temple for Rinzai-Sect., in Matushima, Miyagi. It was built by the 100th head-monk of Zuigan-ji temple in its adjacent in 1647 for a memorial service for Date Mitsumune（伊達光宗）who was Masamune’s grandson and died at the age of 19 in 1645.

(This article ogirinates in a previous article in Japanese.)

Date Mitsumune
    Mitsumune was born in 1627 as the second child of Date Tadamune (伊達忠宗：the second Daimyo/lord of Sendal district after his father Masamune). Tadamune’s firstborn son deceased early so Mitsumune was destined to be the heir presumptive after Tadamune at the age of three. Despite his predetermined destiny, he died of an illness when he was 19 years old. 

    His father Tadamune mourned the death and built a mausoleum in 1646 and Entsu-in temple embracing the mausoleum and a function served only to Mitsumune  in 1647; Entsu-in temple itself can be referred as a grand graveyard only for Mitsumune.

 

Mausoleum/Sankei-den

    The mausoleum called Sankei-den（三慧殿）is covered with gold leaf and there are various colorful decorations on the golden surface. Those decorations consist of a rose, a narcissus and shapes of diamonds, hearts and spades (like tramp cards).         Tadamune would have liked a sense of gorgeousness: the luxurious decorations may have reflected how mourned he was upon his lovely son’s death.

    This mausoleum had been hidden for 350 years since its birth due to the decorations introduced by a missionary sent from Sendai to Europe such as Spain and Italy. Throughout the 260-year Edo period, Tokugawa Shogunate had a policy to keep the nation away from foreign connections. Banning Christianity is one of the most severe policies commenced for “no foreignness”.

    The Date family and Entsu-in temple were afraid that Shogunate may accuse of the forbidden western tastes and order them to demolish the mausoleum; they decided to hide it strictly from public eyes. It is said that Tadamune would have liked to inherit sort of a sprit of Date family from Masamune to Mitsumune: a sense of stubbornness by taking a risk to use those western symbols based on the fact that the missionary was sent by Masamune’s order, who was keen to learn something new without fears against possible criticism by the Shogunate.

Mail Hall/Daihi-tei
 

   The temple’s main hall called Daihi-tei（大悲亭）enshrines Guanyin Boddhisattva（観音菩薩）as its main deity. Originally, the building was a summerhouse that Mitsumune frequently used in Edo. Because Tadamune knew it was his son’s favorite, he decided to dismantle and reconstruct it in Matsushima. Compared to the mausoleum with posh decorations, the main building has sober atmosphere: it is simple and clean. A garden attached to the main hall will be covered with red leaves in autumn; this temple is quite popular among tourists in autumn.