Saidai-ji Temple

Overview

Saidai-ji (西大寺, さいだいじ) is a Buddhist temple in the Saidaiji-Shiba neighbourhood of Nara, the city that served as Japan's capital for most of the eighth century. It was founded in 765, during the Nara period (710–794), in the first year of the era name Tenpyō-jingo (天平神護). The temple belongs to the Shingon sect's eighteen Motoyama, and is also counted among the Yamato Northern 88 Sacred Sites, the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Yamato, the Shinbutsu Reijō Junpai no Michi pilgrimage route, the 西国愛染十七霊場, and the Nanto Shichi Daiji — the Seven Great Temples of Nara.

Its later identity is bound up with a single monk. In 1238 Eison (叡尊) took over the temple's administration and made it the head temple of the Shingon Risshu (真言律宗), a school combining Shingon esoteric practice with strict monastic discipline. Eison enshrined the temple's principal image, a statue of Shaka Nyorai, in 1249.

History

Saidai-ji was established in 765, at the height of Nara-period state Buddhism. The capital, Heijō-kyō, was a city of monumental temples built or sponsored by the imperial court, and Saidai-ji took its place among the most powerful of them, the Nanto Shichi Daiji. The name itself announces the ambition: it means "Great Temple of the West," and it was conceived as a western counterpart to the older Tōdai-ji, the "Great Temple of the East," which had been completed a few decades earlier.

The temple's fortunes declined with the capital. When the court moved to Heian-kyō (Kyoto) in 794, the great Nara foundations lost their political patronage, and Saidai-ji was among those that faded. By the thirteenth century it was a diminished site.

Its revival came through Eison. When he assumed administration in 1238, he turned Saidai-ji into the headquarters of a movement that insisted on the strict monastic precepts at a time when many Japanese Buddhist institutions had grown lax about them. The Shingon Risshu — the name combines Shingon, the esoteric school, with Ritsu, the school of monastic discipline — made Saidai-ji its head temple. In 1249 Eison enshrined the honzon (本尊), the principal object of worship, a statue of Shaka Nyorai, the historical Buddha. Eison's writings are preserved at the temple, among them the Kongō Busshi Eison Kanshin Gakushōki, a record of his own study and practice.

What Stands There Today

Saidai-ji remains an active Shingon Risshu temple in Nara, standing in the Saidaiji-Shiba district on the western side of the city. Its honzon, the Shaka Nyorai statue installed by Eison in 1249, remains the central object of worship. The temple's later history is inseparable from Eison's reputation: he is remembered as a reformer who restored disciplined monastic practice and who directed charitable work on behalf of the poor, and Saidai-ji is the place most closely identified with him.

The temple also functions within several overlapping pilgrimage networks. It is one of the Yamato Northern 88 Sacred Sites, one of the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Yamato, a stop on the Shinbutsu Reijō Junpai no Michi — a route linking Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines — and one of the 西国愛染十七霊場, a seventeen-site circuit associated with the deity Aizen Myōō. These memberships keep it on the itinerary of modern pilgrims as well as casual visitors.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 西大寺 and read さいだいじ (Saidai-ji).

• 西 — read さい (sai) here. It means "west."
• 大 — read だい (dai) here. It means "great" or "large."
• 寺 — read じ (ji) here. It means "temple."

Put together, the name means "Great Temple of the West." The reading is worth noting because none of the three characters uses its most familiar everyday pronunciation in this word. 西 is normally read nishi when it stands alone, but in compounds it is often sai, as in 西暦 (seireki, "Western calendar") or 関西 (Kansai, the region "west of the barrier"). 大 is normally ōkii as an adjective or dai in compounds such as 大学 (daigaku, "university"). 寺 is normally tera when it stands alone — as in お寺 (otera, "temple") — but becomes ji in most temple names, which is why readers meet it constantly in names like Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji and Hōryū-ji.

The pattern 〜寺 (〜じ, -ji) is one of the most productive endings in Japanese temple naming, and recognising it lets a learner parse a great many place names at sight. The 大寺 element, "great temple," likewise recurs in the names of the Nara capitals' major foundations.

Visiting and Context

Saidai-ji sits in the city of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, in the Saidaiji-Shiba neighbourhood west of the central temple districts around Nara Park. Its position reflects its history: the great Nara temples cluster near the old palace site, while Saidai-ji, founded later in the Nara period, lies somewhat apart from them.

For a student of Japanese, the temple is a useful case study in how temple names work. The 〜寺 ending, the Sino-Japanese readings that replace native Japanese words inside compounds, and the directional pairing of 西 (west) with 東 (east) in the names of the two "great temples" all illustrate patterns that appear throughout the language. The name also preserves a fact of eighth-century geography: the temple was named for its position relative to Tōdai-ji, and that relationship survives in the words themselves long after the political world that produced it disappeared.

Saidai-ji's association with Eison gives it a second layer of interest. The Shingon Risshu, the school he founded and installed there in 1238, represents a deliberate return to monastic discipline within Japanese Buddhism, and the temple remains its head temple. The honzon he enshrined in 1249 still defines the temple's ritual centre.