Ninna-ji Temple

Overview

Ninna-ji (仁和寺, にんなじ) is a Buddhist temple in Ukyō Ward in the west of Kyoto, Japan. It was founded in 888, during the Heian period, and is the head temple of the Omuro school of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Shingon (真言, しんごん) is a school of esoteric Buddhism that arrived in Japan from China in the early ninth century and centres on ritual, mantra and mandala practice.

The temple belongs to the Shingon sect's group of eighteen Motoyama, or head temples, and it is one of the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Kyoto. It also forms part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, the collection of temples and shrines inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its grounds sit in the district of Omuro, and the temple is counted among Japan's Top 100 Cherry Blossom Spots.

History

Ninna-ji was founded in 888 by Emperor Uda. The year fell in the fourth year of the Ninna era, and the temple took its name from that era name. Emperor Uda later took the Buddhist vows and became a monk, and the temple he founded retained a close bond with the imperial family for centuries.

That bond shaped the temple's unusual status. Ninna-ji became a monzeki temple (門跡寺院, もんぜきじへん), a temple whose abbot was traditionally drawn from the imperial family or the highest nobility. Because of this imperial connection, the site was known as the Omuro Gosho (御室御所, おむろごしょ) — the Omuro Imperial Palace — a name it carried until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when the imperial court was reorganised and the old aristocratic temple appointments were abolished.

The temple was reconstructed in the seventeenth century, which is why much of what survives on the site dates from that later rebuilding rather than from the ninth-century foundation. The temple also became the head temple of the Omuro-ryu school of ikebana, Japanese flower arrangement, a school founded by Emperor Uda.

What Stands There Today

The Golden Hall, the Kondō (金堂, こんどう), is the temple's principal image hall and the central structure of the complex. The site also holds the Ninna-ji Reihōkan (仁和寺霊宝館, にんなじれいほうかん), a treasure hall where the temple's collection of historic objects is kept and displayed.

The Omuro Cherry Blossoms and the Ninna-ji Imperial Palace Gardens are nationally designated as a Place of Scenic Beauty, and the site of the Ninna-ji Imperial Palace is a National Historic Site. The temple remains a well-known destination for cherry blossom viewing in spring, and the trees associated with it are famous enough that the grounds draw large numbers of visitors each year when they flower.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 仁和寺. Its kana reading is にんなじ, and its romaji is Ninna-ji.

The name breaks down into three characters:

• 仁 — read here as nin. It means benevolence, humanity or virtue, one of the core Confucian virtues.
• 和 — read here as na. It means harmony or peace. This is the same character used in 和食 (washoku, Japanese cuisine) and in the old name for Japan, 大和 (Yamato).
• 寺 — read here as ji. It means temple, and it is the standard suffix attached to the names of Buddhist temples across Japan.

The first two characters together, 仁和, spell Ninna, the name of an era in the Japanese imperial calendar. Era names, or nengō (年号, ねんごう), were adopted from Chinese practice and were changed at intervals, often to mark auspicious events or to make a fresh start after misfortune. The Ninna era ran in the late ninth century, and the temple was founded in its fourth year, so the era name was borrowed directly for the temple's name. The final character, 寺, simply identifies the building as a temple, giving the full sense of "the temple of the Ninna era."

The reading of 仁和 as Ninna is not the most obvious one from the characters alone. A reader who knew only the standard readings might expect something closer to Jinwa or Niwa. The form Ninna reflects the way the sounds were rendered when the name was fixed, and it is worth memorising as a set: 仁和寺, にんなじ, Ninna-ji.

Visiting and Context

Ninna-ji stands in Omuro in Ukyō Ward, in the western part of Kyoto, at coordinates roughly 35.03° north and 135.71° east. It is one of the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Kyoto, a pilgrimage circuit of temples in the city, and it also belongs to the Kinki Thirty-six Fudoson Sacred Ground and to the Shinbutsu Reijō Junpai no Michi, a pilgrimage route linking Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.

For learners of Japanese, the temple's name is a compact lesson in how Japanese religious sites are named. The pattern is common: an era name or an auspicious phrase, followed by 寺 for a Buddhist temple or 神社 (jinja) for a Shinto shrine. Recognising 寺 as a temple marker makes it possible to read names such as 清水寺 (Kiyomizu-dera) or 東大寺 (Tōdai-ji) at a glance. Ninna-ji adds a second layer, since its first two characters are an era name, and era names appear constantly in Japanese historical writing as a way of dating events.