Zuigan-ji temple（瑞巌寺）, Miyagi, Japan

Zuigan-Ji temple（瑞巌寺） is a Rinzai-sect.（臨済宗） Buddhist temple in Matsushima, Miyagi, Japan.
(This article originates in a previous one in Japanese. You can refer to this link.)

    Originally, this temple started as a temple of Tendai-sect.（天台宗）, a Buddhist group with a different dogma (let’s say, similar to differences between Catholic and Protestant in Christianity), but it was renewed to the Rinzai-sect. by Kamakura Shogunate in Kamakura era and then renovated by Date Masamune（伊達政宗）, the first samurai lord or “Daimyo”（大名）of Sendai district in Edo period.
The temple’s main hall which has Masamune’s mortuary tablet within was built by his own order and has been preserved for generations: the hall with its grand kitchen inside has been a national treasure of Japan since 1953, given its background history and proper preservation.

The imperial court and Samurai
    Zuigan-ji temple’s history goes in line with political shift between the imperial court and Samurai Shogunate in history of Japan. The temple was firstly opened as “Enhuku-ji temple”（円福寺） in 828 by the hand of En-nin（円仁）, the third head-monk of Tendai Sect. at its headquarter temple called Hiei-zan Enryaku-ji temple（比叡山延暦寺） upon request from the 53rd Emperor Jun-na（淳和天皇）. En-nin brought 3,000 Buddhist students with him all the way from the headquarter near Lake Biwa (in the place known as Shiga prefecture at present) to Matsushima in north-east in Japanese archipelago; Enhuku-ji temple was recognized as the second headquarter for the Buddhist sect. at the time. A local load, Oshu-Fujiwara clan (奥州藤原氏） who was based on the area, supported the temple very much.

    When Japan turned into the Samurai era spurred by Kamakura Shogunate（鎌倉幕府）, the situation changed. The Shogunate absorbed major political powers from the imperial court and destroyed the local clan.  The temple’s chronical indicates that it had a good relationship with the Shogunate for the first time after the political shift, typified by the story that Hojo Masako（北条政子）, wife of Minamoto no Yoritomo （源頼朝）who headed the Shogunate, donated a stupa to the temple for praying peace to her husband, Yoritomo, after his death.

    As time went by, the Shogunate suddenly changed its policy over the temple and kicked out monks of the Tendai Sect. and invited a head monk of Zen: Rinzai-Sect. to the temple since Hojo Tokiyori（北条時頼）, Masako’s decedent heading the Shogunate that time, preferred Zen to other Buddhism. With this sudden replacement, the temple ended its 400-year history as Tendai Sect. and restarted as a Zen temple.

    The temple was about to be abandoned before the Edo period. Masamune, who received sovereignty in Sendai district from Tokugawa Ieyasu, was shocked with the ruined temple and decided to rebuild the temple after he heard a plea for rebuild from a priest. He spent 10 years to complete the restoration and finally changed the temple’s name to the current Zuigan-Ji. After his death, the temple was positioned as his family temple and his decedents protected it to the end.

     After demise of the Edo Shogunate, again the temple was about to be abandoned since it lost the Date familiy’s support. However, the Emperor Mutsuhito determined to be a patronage and the temple recovered again. After the second World War, the temple has been popular as a tourist site by its reputation as “national treasure”.

Tsunami
    On March 11, 2011. A big earthquake accompanied a huge Tsunami. The Tsunami hit Zuigan-ji temple but the damage was smaller than other devastated areas. The national treasure survived.

    When Tsunami approached to the temple, there were a lot of tourists, but monks called them to evacuate to the higher hills quickly; Eventually, no one died of the Tsunami. With this fact, people have had more worships towards Masamune whose soul is believed to rest in peace at the temple.