Jōchi-ji Temple

Overview

Jōchi-ji (浄智寺, じょうちじ) is a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, founded in 1283 during the Kamakura period. It stands in Yamanouchi, the northern district of the city known as Kita-Kamakura, where a cluster of Zen temples lines the narrow valley floors between wooded hills.

The temple belongs to the Engaku-ji school of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. Within the Kamakura Gozan (鎌倉五山), the "Five Mountains of Kamakura" — a ranking of the city's leading Zen monasteries modelled on a Chinese system — Jōchi-ji holds fourth place. Its full name is Kinpōzan Jōchi-ji (金宝山浄智寺), Kinpōzan being the temple's mountain name, the honorific prefix that Zen temples traditionally carry.

The main objects of worship are three statues enshrined in the main hall: Shaka (釈迦), the historical Buddha; Miroku (弥勒), the Buddha of the future; and Amida Nyorai (阿弥陀如来), the Buddha of the western paradise. The temple also appears on several Kamakura pilgrimage circuits: the Kamakura Enoshima Shichifukujin, the 24 Jizō Reijō of Kamakura, the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Kamakura, and the 33 Sacred Sites of Kannon in Kamakura.

History

Jōchi-ji was founded in 1283, in the sixth year of the Kōan era (弘安, こうあん). The Kamakura period, which ran from 1185 to 1333, was the age in which a warrior government based at Kamakura held real power in Japan while the imperial court remained in Kyoto. It was also the age in which Zen Buddhism, recently transmitted from China, took root among the warrior class, who were drawn to its emphasis on discipline and direct experience.

The temple's founding belongs to the second half of that period, when Kamakura's rulers were investing heavily in Zen institutions. The Gozan ranking system placed the most important of these monasteries in a formal hierarchy, and Jōchi-ji's position as fourth of the five reflects its standing among them. The temple's affiliation with the Engaku-ji school ties it to Engaku-ji, the great Rinzai monastery of Kita-Kamakura, which stands nearby in the same district.

What Stands There Today

The temple occupies a site in Yamanouchi, at coordinates roughly 35.33 degrees north and 139.55 degrees east, set back from the road in a hollow among the hills of northern Kamakura. The approach passes beneath a steep, moss-covered hillside, and the grounds themselves are cut into the slope, with the main hall standing above a flight of stone steps.

The main hall houses the three principal images: Shaka, Miroku, and Amida Nyorai, displayed together. This grouping of three Buddhas is a distinctive feature of the temple's worship. The temple's membership in multiple pilgrimage circuits means it is a stopping point for visitors following the Shichifukujin route through Kamakura and Enoshima, the Jizō circuit, the Thirteen Buddhist Sites, and the Kannon circuit — each of which associates particular halls or images with particular vows or benefits.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name in Japanese is 浄智寺. Its reading in kana is じょうちじ, and in romaji it is Jōchiji or Jōchi-ji. The macron over the first o marks a long vowel: the first element is held roughly twice as long as a short o.

Broken down character by character:

• 浄 — read here as jō. It means "pure," "clean," or "purified." In Buddhist vocabulary it frequently renders the Sanskrit concept of purity, and it appears in the names of many temples and sutras.
• 智 — read here as chi. It means "wisdom," "knowledge," or "discernment." In Buddhist usage it often denotes the penetrating insight that sees things as they are, as distinct from ordinary accumulated learning.
• 寺 — read here as ji. It means "temple." This is the standard character for a Buddhist temple in Japan, and it appears at the end of the names of most of them.

So the name as a whole means something like "Temple of Pure Wisdom." The two initial characters, 浄智, form a compound read jōchi, and the final 寺 is the generic suffix. Note that when 寺 follows a voiced sound it is read ji, not tera; the standalone word for temple is 寺, read tera, but in compounds it usually shifts to ji or dera.

The temple's full name adds a mountain name in front: 金宝山, read Kinpōzan, meaning "Mountain of Golden Treasure." Zen temples in Japan conventionally carry such a name, which functions as part of the formal title rather than as a geographical description.

Visiting and Context

Jōchi-ji sits in Kita-Kamakura, within easy walking distance of several other major Zen temples, including Engaku-ji, Kenchō-ji, and Zuisen-ji. The concentration of Zen foundations in this small area is a direct result of the Kamakura period's patronage of the Rinzai school, and a walk through the district passes through the heart of that history.

The temple's inclusion in the Kamakura Gozan and in four separate pilgrimage circuits makes it a standard stop for visitors working through Kamakura's religious sites. The circuits themselves are a Japanese devotional tradition: pilgrims travel a fixed route, visiting each temple in turn, often collecting a seal or inscription at each stop as a record of the journey. Jōchi-ji's presence on the Shichifukujin route — the circuit of the Seven Lucky Gods — the Jizō route, the Thirteen Buddhist Sites, and the Kannon route means that different visitors arrive with different purposes, each circuit attaching its own meaning to the same grounds.