Kōmyō-ji Temple

Overview

Kōmyō-ji (光明寺, こうみょうじ, Kōmyō-ji) is a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo sect in Zaimokuza, a neighbourhood of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture. Its full name is Tenshōzan Renge-in Kōmyō-ji (天照山蓮華院光明寺). Of the major temples in Kamakura, it is the only one that stands close to the sea.

The temple belongs to the Jōdo sect, the school of Pure Land Buddhism founded on the teaching of Amitābha Buddha, known in Japanese as Amida (阿弥陀). Kōmyō-ji is the sect's head temple for the Kantō region, the plain around present-day Tokyo, and it ranks first among the Kantō Jūhachi Danrin (関東十八檀林), a group of eighteen Jōdo temples established during the Edo period under Tokugawa Ieyasu for the training of priests and for scholarly research.

Despite its Jōdo affiliation, the temple shares several features usually associated with Zen: a sanmon (山門, さんもん), the main gate; a pond; and a karesansui (枯山水, かれさんすい), a dry landscape garden of arranged rock and gravel.

History

Kōmyō-ji was founded in 1243, in the Kamakura period (1185–1333). The era name for that year was Kangen (寛元), and 1243 was its first year. The temple therefore belongs to the same century in which Kamakura served as the seat of the shogunate and as the political centre of Japan.

Through its long history the temple has enjoyed the patronage of Japan's powerful. It is the only Buddhist temple in Kamakura to have served as a daimyō's funeral temple. The Naitō clan, feudal lords from the region of present-day Miyazaki Prefecture, chose Kōmyō-ji for that role, and their tombs form part of the temple compound.

The temple holds the Taima Mandala engi (当麻曼荼羅縁起), a narrative work recounting the origins of the Taima Mandala, a pictorial representation of the Pure Land that is central to Jōdo devotion.

Kōmyō-ji appears in several Kamakura pilgrimage and scenic listings: the 33 Sacred Sites of Kannon in Kamakura, the Kantō Jūhachi Danrin, the 24 Jizō Reijō of Kamakura, and the selection of fifty celebrated views of Kanagawa known as かながわの景勝50選.

What Stands There Today

The temple compound contains the usual Buddhist cemetery, and alongside it a special crypt holding the ashes of house pets and other animals. A group of veterinarian volunteers created the crypt and maintains it, and twice a year the temple holds ceremonies in the Main Hall in memory of the animals.

The Main Hall also hosts occasional music concerts, announced on the temple's website. Visitors who make a reservation can try the vegetarian food that the resident priests themselves eat, for 3,500 yen. Entrance to the temple is free. The sanmon is the exception: it can be visited only by telephoning the temple, explaining the reasons for the planned visit, making a reservation, and paying a small fee.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 光明寺. It is read こうみょうじ in kana, and rendered in romaji as Kōmyō-ji. The macron over the first two vowels marks a long sound: the "ō" in both Kō and myō is held roughly twice as long as a short "o".

The name breaks into three kanji:

• 光 — read here as こ (ko), with the long vowel supplied by the following character. It means "light", "brightness" or "radiance".
• 明 — read here as みょう (myō). It means "bright", "clear" or "luminous". Combined with 光, it forms the word 光明 (こうみょう, kōmyō), meaning "light", "radiance" or "glory" — a common Buddhist term for the light that emanates from a Buddha.
• 寺 — read here as じ (ji). It means "temple". This character appears in the names of temples throughout Japan, and it is the element that tells a reader the place is a Buddhist foundation rather than a Shintō shrine.

So the whole name means, plainly, "Temple of Light". The full formal name adds two more elements: Tenshōzan (天照山) is the temple's mountain name, a conventional prefix in Japanese temple naming that does not refer to an actual mountain here, and Renge-in (蓮華院) is its cloister name, from 蓮華 (れんげ, renge), the lotus, the flower that in Buddhist imagery stands for purity rising out of mud.

Visiting and Context

Kōmyō-ji stands in Zaimokuza, at coordinates 35.3032° north, 139.5550° east, a short distance from the Kamakura coast. Its seaside position sets it apart from the better-known temples inland, which sit among the wooded hills that surround the city.

The temple's membership in the Kantō Jūhachi Danrin places it within a network of Jōdo institutions created in the Edo period for priestly training and scholarship, and its position as head of that group gives it a standing in the sect beyond Kamakura itself. Its presence on the 33 Sacred Sites of Kannon in Kamakura, the 24 Jizō Reijō of Kamakura, and the かながわの景勝50選 reflects its role both as a pilgrimage destination and as a scenic site in Kanagawa Prefecture.

For a visitor, the practical points are these: entry to the temple grounds is free, the sanmon requires a telephone call, an explanation of the purpose of the visit, a reservation and a small fee, and the vegetarian meal eaten by the priests is available by reservation for 3,500 yen.