Jōmyō-ji Temple

Overview

Jōmyō-ji (浄妙寺, じょうみょうじ) is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, founded in 1188, in year four of the Bunji era (文治). It belongs to the Rinzai sect, Kenchō-ji school, and is the fifth and last of the five temples ranked as the Kamakura Gozan (鎌倉五山), "Kamakura's Five Mountains" — the city's five leading Zen monasteries.

It is the only one of the five not founded by a member of the Hōjō clan, the family that dominated Japan through most of the Kamakura period (1185–1333). Jōmyō-ji's patrons were the Ashikaga, and the temple served as one of that family's bodaiji (菩提寺), funeral temples where ancestral rites were performed. The Ashikaga crest appears throughout the grounds. The temple also belongs to two Kamakura pilgrimage circuits: the 33 Sacred Sites of Kannon and the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Kamakura.

History

The temple was established in 1188, during the Bunji era, and takes its name from Ashikaga Sadauji (足利貞氏), a leading figure of the Ashikaga house. Its full name is Tōkasan Jōmyō Zenji (稲荷山浄妙寺), and it stands on the hill in Kamakura that gave the temple the first element of that name.

Through the Kamakura period, Jōmyō-ji functioned as a family temple for the Ashikaga, who were among the most powerful warrior houses of the era. That relationship distinguishes it from the other four Gozan temples, all of which were founded under Hōjō sponsorship. The temple's later history is bound up with Ashikaga Tadayoshi (足利直義), a member of the family, who died at Jōmyō-ji.

What Stands There Today

Jōmyō-ji remains an active Rinzai Zen temple of the Kenchō-ji school. Its grounds preserve the character of an Ashikaga family temple: the family's crest is displayed across the premises, marking the site's long association with the house.

The temple is counted among the 33 Sacred Sites of Kannon in Kamakura, a circuit of temples dedicated to Kannon (観音), the bodhisattva of compassion, and among the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Kamakura. These memberships place Jōmyō-ji within the network of pilgrimage routes that structure religious travel through the city. The temple has also given its name to the surrounding district, Jōmyōji.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 浄妙寺. It is read じょうみょうじ in kana, and romanised as Jōmyō-ji. The long vowels are held: jō, myō, and a final ji.

The name breaks into three characters:

• 浄 — read here as jō. It means "pure," "clean," or "purified." In Buddhist vocabulary it carries the sense of moral and spiritual purity, and it appears in the names of many temples and in terms for the Buddhist Pure Land.
• 妙 — read here as myō. It means "wonderful," "exquisite," "mysterious," or "subtle." In Buddhist usage it often describes the ineffable or marvellous quality of the dharma, and it is a common element in sutra titles and temple names.
• 寺 — read here as ji. It means "temple." This is the standard character for a Buddhist temple, and it appears at the end of temple names across Japan. Its reading shifts between ji and dera depending on the name.

Together, 浄妙寺 can be glossed as "Temple of Pure Wonder" or "Temple of Wondrous Purity." The full temple name, Tōkasan Jōmyō Zenji (稲荷山浄妙寺), adds 稲荷山, "Inari mountain," read Tōkasan, after the hill on which the temple stands. The hill itself takes its name from an ancient Inari myth.

One point repays attention for anyone reading signs or addresses in the area. The neighbourhood that shares the temple's name is written with different characters: 浄明寺 rather than 浄妙寺. The second character changes from 妙 (myō, "wondrous") to 明 (myō, "bright"). The reading is identical, so the two are indistinguishable in speech and in romaji, and only the written form tells them apart.

Visiting and Context

Jōmyō-ji sits in the Jōmyōji district of Kamakura, at coordinates roughly 35.32° north, 139.57° east. It is one of the principal stops for travellers working through the Kamakura Gozan, the five ranked Zen temples of the city, and it holds a place on both the Kannon pilgrimage circuit and the Thirteen Buddhist Sites circuit.

Its position among the Gozan makes it a useful reference point for the religious geography of the Kamakura period. The four other Gozan temples were Hōjō foundations; Jōmyō-ji alone represents the Ashikaga presence in that ranking, and its grounds, marked by the family crest, preserve the memory of that patronage. For students of Japanese, the temple is also a compact lesson in how temple names are built — a pair of auspicious Buddhist characters followed by the ubiquitous 寺 — and in how a place name can drift in writing while its pronunciation stays fixed.