Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Gohyaku Rakan ji 五百羅漢寺:A Famous Obaku Temple in Edo (Tokyo)



In Sept. 29, 2015, Dr. Yang Kuei-hsiang accompanied me to Zojoji. During the visit, I suddenly remembered that there was a much famous Obaku temple during the Edo period called Gohyaku Rakan ji 五百羅漢寺, which was famous for the carving of five hundred Arhant statues by the monk and Buddha sculptor Shoon Genkei 松雲元慶,who was the founder of the temple and a disciple of Obaku monk Tetsugen Doko 鐵眼道光. The temple received patronage from the Shogun as well. The temple remained an Obaku temple in the Edo period and was one of the Meisho (famous attraction) in Edo until it was destroyed in modern times and was moved to the current location during the early Meiji period. The temple is now a Pure Land Temple and is flourishing with generous support from local communities. It has quite a collection of things of early Obaku abbots and portraits of Yinyuan in display.

I don't know if there is any Japanese study on this temple. But there was a study in English which I quoted in my book Leaving for the Rising Sun:

Screech, Timon. “The Strangest Place in Edo: The Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats,” Monumenta Nipponica, 48.4 (Winter, 1993): 407–428.



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