Chōshō-ji Temple

Overview

Chōshō-ji (長勝寺, ちょうしょうじ) is a Buddhist temple in the Zaimokuza district of Kamakura, in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. It belongs to the Nichiren Shū (日蓮宗), the school of Buddhism that traces its origins to the thirteenth-century monk Nichiren. The temple was founded in 1263, during the Kamakura period (1185–1333), in the third year of the Kōchō era (弘長, こうちょう).

Chōshō-ji is one of a group of three temples built near the site in Matsubagayatsu (松葉ヶ谷, まつばがやつ), the "Valley of Pine Needles", where Nichiren is said to have had his hut. The temple's full name is Ishiizan Chōshō-ji (石井山長勝寺, いしいざん ちょうしょうじ), and both parts of the temple's own name derive from its founder.

History

Chōshō-ji was established in 1263, in the third year of the Kōchō era, during the Kamakura period. The temple stands in Zaimokuza, a district of Kamakura on the coast, and it belongs to the Nichiren Shū.

The temple's place in Kamakura's religious landscape is bound up with Nichiren himself. Matsubagayatsu, the Valley of Pine Needles, is the site where Nichiren, the founder of the sect that bears his name, is supposed to have had his hut. Chōshō-ji is one of a group of three temples built near that site, a cluster that marks the area associated with the founder's early years in Kamakura.

The temple takes its name from its founder. The first element of the name, Ishiizan, comes from the founder's family name, Ishii. The second element, Chōshō, is an alternative reading of the characters used to write the founder's given name, Nagakatsu.

What Stands There Today

Chōshō-ji is an active temple of the Nichiren Shū, located in Zaimokuza in Kamakura, at coordinates 35.3102° north, 139.5570° east. It forms part of the group of three temples built near the Matsubagayatsu site associated with Nichiren's hut, and it preserves the memory of its founder in its name: Ishiizan from the family name Ishii, and Chōshō as an alternative reading of the characters for the given name Nagakatsu.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name in Japanese is 長勝寺. Its kana reading is ちょうしょうじ, and its romaji is Chōshō-ji. The full name of the temple is 石井山長勝寺 (いしいざん ちょうしょうじ, Ishiizan Chōshō-ji), where 石井山 is the mountain name (山号, さんごう, sangō), a prefix that Buddhist temples in Japan traditionally carry.

Taken character by character, 長勝寺 breaks down as follows.

長 — read here as ちょう (chō). The character means "long" or "chief". In this name it is the first element of Chōshō, an alternative reading of the characters used to write the founder's given name, Nagakatsu. The same character read in its native Japanese fashion is なが (naga), which is how it appears in the name Nagakatsu.

勝 — read here as しょう (shō). The character means "victory" or "to win". It is the second element of Chōshō, completing the alternative reading of the characters for Nagakatsu.

寺 — read here as じ (ji). The character means "temple" and is the standard suffix for a Buddhist temple in Japanese. It appears in countless temple names across the country, and its reading shifts between じ (ji) and でら (dera) depending on the name.

The mountain name 石井山 breaks down in the same way. 石 (いし, ishi) means "stone"; 井 (い, i) means "well"; together 石井 (いしい, Ishii) is the founder's family name. 山 (ざん, zan) means "mountain" and marks the name as a mountain name, the traditional prefix borne by a Buddhist temple.

Visiting and Context

Chōshō-ji lies in Zaimokuza, a district of Kamakura on the coast south of the city centre, at 35.3102° north, 139.5570° east. It is one of the three temples built near the Matsubagayatsu site where Nichiren is said to have had his hut, and it belongs to the Nichiren Shū.

For readers of Japanese, the name repays attention. The temple's name is built directly out of its founder's name: 石井山 from the family name Ishii, and 長勝寺 from an alternative reading of the characters for the given name Nagakatsu. The same characters 長 and 勝 that appear in the temple name also appear, read natively, in the personal name they commemorate — a small lesson in how Japanese names and place names reuse the same written characters under different readings.