Gumyō-ji Temple

Overview

Gumyō-ji (弘明寺, ぐみょうじ, Gumyō-ji) is a Buddhist temple in Minami-ku, Yokohama, in Kanagawa Prefecture. It belongs to the Kōyasan Shingon-shū (高野山真言宗), the Shingon school of Buddhism headquartered on Mount Kōya, and its full name is Zuio-zan Renge-in Gumyō-ji (瑞應山蓮華院弘明寺). The temple's principal image, its honzon (本尊, ほんぞん, the main object of worship), is a statue of Jūichimen Kannon Bosatsu (十一面観音菩薩, じゅういちめんかんのんぼさつ, the Eleven-Faced Bodhisattva of Compassion). That statue is a hibutsu (秘仏, ひぶつ, a "secret Buddha"), an image kept hidden from public view. The temple is also known simply as Gumyō Kannon (弘明寺観音).

Gumyō-ji is the fourteenth stop on the Bandō Sanjūsankasho (坂東三十三箇所), a pilgrimage circuit of thirty-three Kannon temples across the Kantō region. The temple stands at coordinates 35.4241667, 139.5974167, in the Yokohama neighbourhood that takes its name from the temple, Gumyōji.

History

Gumyō-ji was founded in 1044, during the Heian period (794–1185). In the Japanese era system, that year was the first year of the Kantoku era (寛徳, かんとく). The Heian period was the age of the imperial court at Kyoto, when Buddhism spread widely through the provinces and pilgrimage routes began to knit the country together. A temple founded in 1044 belongs to that world: an established, court-era religious foundation rather than a medieval or early-modern one.

The temple's later importance is bound up with the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, the thirty-three-temple Kannon pilgrimage of the Kantō region. As the fourteenth of those thirty-three stops, Gumyō-ji sits on a route that pilgrims have walked for centuries. The circuit's number, thirty-three, follows the widespread belief that Kannon manifests in thirty-three forms; a pilgrim who completes the route has honoured the bodhisattva in each of them.

What Stands There Today

The temple is an active Shingon foundation in southern Yokohama, in the ward of Minami-ku. Its honzon, the Jūichimen Kannon, is a hibutsu, kept hidden; such images in Japanese Buddhism are typically shown only on rare, appointed occasions. The temple's formal name, Zuio-zan Renge-in Gumyō-ji, follows the standard pattern for Buddhist temple names: a mountain name (sangō), a cloister name (ingō), and the temple name itself.

Because it is the fourteenth stop on the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, Gumyō-ji remains a destination for henro (遍路, へんろ, pilgrims) walking the Kantō circuit, as well as for local worshippers. The neighbourhood around it carries the temple's name: the district is called Gumyōji.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 弘明寺. Its kana reading is ぐみょうじ, and its romaji is Gumyō-ji. The reading is the first thing to notice: it is not the reading a modern reader might guess from the three characters, which is precisely why the kana form is worth learning alongside the kanji.

Character by character:

• 弘 — read here as gu. The character means "wide", "broad", or "to spread abroad". In this name it carries the sense of spreading the teaching widely.
• 明 — read here as myō. The character means "bright", "clear", or "light". Together with the first character it forms a familiar pair meaning "bright and broad" or "widely illuminating".
• 寺 — read here as ji. The character means "temple". It is one of the most useful kanji for anyone reading about Japanese Buddhism: it appears in temple names across the country, and its reading ji (or tera) is a reliable signal that a place is a Buddhist temple.

The first two characters, 弘明, would normally be read Kōmyō in other contexts. The reading Gumyō is particular to this temple and its district, and the district name is written with the same three characters. A learner who knows the standard readings will still need the kana to pronounce the place correctly.

Note also the long vowel: Gumyō ends in a long ō, written みょう in kana. In romaji it is marked with a macron, and in kana the small ょ combines with み to make the single sound myo, followed by the long う.

Visiting and Context

Gumyō-ji is in Minami-ku, Yokohama, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture south of Tokyo. The temple gives its name to the surrounding district, Gumyōji, so the place name on a map and the temple name are the same word. For a visitor, that is a useful piece of orientation: arriving in the Gumyōji district is arriving at the temple's doorstep.

Two contexts frame a visit. The first is sectarian: as a Kōyasan Shingon-shū temple, Gumyō-ji belongs to the Shingon school, the tradition associated with Kūkai and centred on Mount Kōya. The second is pilgrimage: its position as the fourteenth of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho places it within a defined circuit of thirty-three Kannon temples in the Kantō region, and pilgrims on that route arrive with a specific purpose — to venerate the fourteenth Kannon of thirty-three.

The honzon, the Jūichimen Kannon, is a hibutsu, so the central image is not ordinarily on view. The Eleven-Faced Kannon is one of the most common forms of the bodhisattva in Japanese Buddhism, distinguished by the eleven small heads arranged above the main face.