Ryūshō-in Temple

Overview

Ryūshō-in (龍正院) is a Buddhist temple in the Namegawa neighbourhood of Narita, a city in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. It belongs to the Tendai school, one of the major traditions of Japanese Buddhism, and its principal image — the honzon (本尊, ほんぞん, the main object of worship) — is a statue of Jūichimen Kannon Bosatsu, the eleven-faced Kannon. The temple's full name is Namegawa-zan Ryūshō-in Shōfuku-ji (滑河山龍正院勝福寺).

The temple is the twenty-eighth stop on the Bandō Sanjūsankasho (坂東三十三箇所), a pilgrimage circuit of thirty-three Kannon temples spread across the Kantō region. It was founded in 838, during the Heian period, in the fifth year of the Jōwa era.

History

Ryūshō-in was established in 838. That year fell in the Jōwa era (承和, じょうわ), a period name applied to the years 834 to 848, and the temple's founding is dated to Jōwa 5. The broader setting was the Heian period, the span from 794 to 1185 during which the imperial court sat at Heian-kyō, the city now called Kyoto, and Buddhism spread from the capital into the provinces.

The temple belongs to the Tendai school, which traces its Japanese lineage to the monk Saichō and the monastery he founded on Mount Hiei, north-east of Kyoto. Tendai temples across Japan enshrined Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, and Ryūshō-in's principal image follows that pattern.

Its place in the historical record is bound up with the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, the thirty-three-temple Kannon pilgrimage of the Kantō region. Ryūshō-in is the twenty-eighth of those stops. Pilgrimage routes of this kind gave provincial temples a fixed place on a map that worshippers travelled on foot, and the numbering of each site — twenty-eighth here — is how the circuit is still organised.

What Stands There Today

The temple stands in the Namegawa district of Narita, Chiba Prefecture, at coordinates roughly 35.867 north, 140.342 east. Its honzon, the eleven-faced Kannon, is known as the Namegawa Kannon (滑河観音), taking its name from the locality. The temple's full formal name, Namegawa-zan Ryūshō-in Shōfuku-ji, likewise begins with the place name: Namegawa-zan means "Mount Namegawa," the mountain-name that Japanese temples traditionally carry.

As the twenty-eighth site on the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, Ryūshō-in receives pilgrims walking the circuit, who follow the route from temple to temple and mark each stop. The temple is a Tendai foundation, so its ritual life follows that school's practice.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 龍正院. It is read りゅうしょういん in kana, and rendered in romaji as Ryūshō-in. The long ō in the second syllable reflects the kanji 正, whose reading here is しょう.

Taken character by character:

• 龍 — read りゅう (ryū) in this name. The character means "dragon." It is the older, more elaborate form of the character now usually written 竜, and it carries a grand, auspicious tone; dragons in Japanese Buddhism are protectors of the dharma and guardians of water and rain.
• 正 — read しょう (shō) in this name. The character means "correct," "right," or "orthodox." In temple names it often signals true or authentic teaching.
• 院 — read いん (in) in this name. The character means "institution," "hall," or "cloister." As a suffix on a temple name it indicates a religious foundation or a sub-temple, and it is one of the most common endings for Buddhist temple names in Japan.

The full name adds two more elements. 滑河山 (なめかわさん, Namekawa-san) is the temple's sangō (山号, さんごう), the "mountain name" that precedes the temple name in formal usage; 山 here is read さん and means "mountain," while 滑河 is the place name Namegawa. 勝福寺 (しょうふくじ, Shōfuku-ji) is the temple's jigō (寺号, じごう), its actual temple name: 勝 means "victory" or "excellence," 福 means "fortune" or "blessing," and 寺 means "temple." So the complete formal name, 滑河山龍正院勝福寺, stacks a mountain name, the name Ryūshō-in, and the temple name Shōfuku-ji in the conventional order.

Visiting and Context

Ryūshō-in sits in Narita, a city in Chiba Prefecture that is also home to Narita-san Shinshō-ji, one of the most visited temples in the Kantō region. The Namegawa district where Ryūshō-in stands lies within the same city, and the temple's honzon, the Namegawa Kannon, takes its name from that district.

For readers of Japanese, the name repays attention: 龍正院 combines a dragon, a word for orthodoxy, and the suffix used for countless temple foundations, while the full form 滑河山龍正院勝福寺 shows how a Japanese temple can carry a mountain name, a temple name, and a formal name all at once. The date 838 places the foundation in the Heian period, and the temple's position as the twenty-eighth stop on the Bandō Sanjūsankasho ties it to a pilgrimage network that has organised Kannon worship across the Kantō region for centuries.