Kongōbu-ji Temple

Overview

Kongōbu-ji (金剛峯寺, こんごうぶじ) is the head temple of Kōyasan Shingon Buddhism, standing on Mount Kōya (高野山, Kōya-san) in Kōya-chō, Wakayama Prefecture. The temple was founded in 816, during the Heian period, in the seventh year of the Kōnin era (弘仁, Kōnin). It is the ecclesiastic centre of the Shingon school and forms part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It also belongs to the Shingon sect's group of eighteen Motoyama, or head temples, and to the Shinbutsu Reijō Junpai no Michi, a pilgrimage route linking shrines and temples.

History

The temple's origins lie in 816, when the site was established on Mount Kōya. Over the following centuries it accumulated extensive landholdings, recorded as owner of the Tomobuchi Estate, the Tsutsuga Estate, the Kanshōfu-shō and the Arakawa Estate. These estates supported the monastic community on the mountain and tied Kongōbu-ji into the wider economic networks of medieval Japan.

The temple building that visitors know today has a separate history from the original foundation. It was first constructed as Seigan-ji Temple in 1593 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, on the death of his mother. The structure was rebuilt in 1861, and in 1869 it was given its present name, Kongōbu-ji. The temple takes its name from the Yuishin Kongō-chō gyō, a Buddhist scripture known in Japanese as the Yugikyō (瑜祇経).

What Stands There Today

Kongōbu-ji contains many sliding screen doors, or fusuma, painted by Kanō Tanyū (1602–1674) and members of the Kyoto Kanō school. The temple complex includes the Okuno-in Temple, the Tokugawa Mausoleum, and the Kongōbu-ji Fudōdō. The Fudōdō is the hall dedicated to Fudō Myōō, a fierce guardian figure central to Shingon practice.

The temple's modern rock garden, the Banryūtei (蟠龍庭), is the largest in Japan, covering 2,340 square metres. It is built from 140 granite stones arranged to suggest a pair of dragons emerging from clouds to protect the temple.

The 414th abbot of Kongōbu-ji is the Reverend Kogi Kasai, who also serves as archbishop of the Kōyasan Shingon school. Visitors to the temple can listen to the sermons of the monks and join ajikan meditation sessions. Ajikan (阿字観) is a fundamental breathing and meditation method of Shingon Buddhism, meaning "meditating on the letter A," which is written using the Siddhaṃ alphabet.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 金剛峯寺, read in kana as こんごうぶじ, and romanised as Kongōbu-ji. The final character, 寺, is the ordinary Japanese word for a Buddhist temple, and it appears in the names of temples across the country. The first three characters carry the distinctive meaning.

金 — read here as kon. It means "gold" or "metal," and by extension "diamond" or "indestructible." In Buddhist vocabulary this character frequently signals the diamond or vajra, a symbol of unchanging truth.

剛 — read here as gō. It means "strong," "firm" or "hardy." Paired with 金, it forms the compound 金剛 (kongō), meaning "diamond" or "vajra" — the thunderbolt weapon and the diamond-hard quality of enlightenment in Buddhist thought.

峯 — read here as bu. It means "peak" or "summit," and it is the character that gives the temple its mountain setting. In this compound it takes the voiced reading bu rather than its more common hō or mine.

寺 — read here as ji. It means "temple." It takes the voiced reading ji rather than tera because it follows another element in a compound name, a common sound change in Japanese.

Taken together, the name means "Temple of the Diamond Mountain Peak." The 金剛 element connects the temple to the vajra, the diamond thunderbolt of Shingon doctrine, while 峯 refers to the mountain peak on which it stands. The name was formally adopted in 1869, replacing the earlier designation Seigan-ji.

Visiting and Context

Kongōbu-ji sits at the centre of Mount Kōya, in Kōya-chō, Wakayama Prefecture, at coordinates roughly 34.21 degrees north and 135.58 degrees east. The temple is the head of Kōyasan Shingon Buddhism and one of the eighteen Motoyama, or head temples, of the Shingon sect. It is also a component of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and it lies on the Shinbutsu Reijō Junpai no Michi, a pilgrimage circuit that links Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.

The temple's grounds include the Okuno-in Temple, the Tokugawa Mausoleum and the Kongōbu-ji Fudōdō, and the Banryūtei rock garden is the largest in Japan. Visitors can attend monks' sermons and take part in ajikan meditation, the Shingon practice of meditating on the letter A written in the Siddhaṃ alphabet. The 414th abbot, the Reverend Kogi Kasai, also serves as archbishop of the Kōyasan Shingon school.