Sanbō-in Temple

Overview

Sanbō-in (三宝院, Sanbō-in) is a Buddhist temple in Fushimi-ku, in the south of Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It was founded in 1115, during the Heian period, the long stretch of Japanese history that ran from 794 to 1185. The temple is not an independent institution: it is part of Daigo-ji (醍醐寺, Daigo-ji), the large Shingon Buddhist complex on Mount Daigo, and it serves as the head temple of the Sanbō-in school of Shingon Buddhism.

Sanbō-in is best known today for its garden, which is counted among the finest surviving examples of Japanese garden design. The temple also preserves a number of important buildings, including the Omote-Shoin (表書院, Omote-Shoin), a formal reception hall, and the Kara-mon (唐門, Kara-mon), a gate.

History

Sanbō-in was founded in 1115, in the third year of the Eikyū era (永久), by the monk Shōkaku (勝覚, Shōkaku). Shōkaku was a son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi (源為義, Minamoto no Tameyoshi), a prominent warrior of the Heian period, and he served as abbot of Daigo-ji. He established Sanbō-in within the Daigo-ji complex as a residence and ceremonial centre, and it became the administrative heart of the temple's affairs.

The temple's later history is bound up with Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉, Toyotomi Hideyoshi), the warlord who unified Japan at the end of the sixteenth century. In 1598, Hideyoshi held a celebrated cherry-blossom viewing party at Daigo-ji, and the event prompted a major rebuilding of the complex. Sanbō-in was reconstructed at this time, and the garden was laid out under the direction of the monk Gien (義演, Gien), who served as its head. Gien was a son of the court noble Nijō Haruyoshi (二条晴良, Nijō Haruyoshi) and had close ties to Hideyoshi's circle.

The buildings that survive today date largely from that late sixteenth-century reconstruction and from the early Edo period that followed. The Omote-Shoin, the Kara-mon, and the garden all belong to this phase of the temple's life.

What Stands There Today

The Omote-Shoin (表書院, Omote-Shoin) is the temple's principal reception hall, divided into a series of rooms of graded formality. Its painted sliding screens and its arrangement of rooms reflect the conventions of elite residential architecture of the period.

The Sanbō-in Garden (三宝院庭園, Sanbō-in Teien) is the element for which the temple is most famous. It is a pond garden, designed to be viewed from the veranda of the Omote-Shoin, and it incorporates a large artificial hill, a pond, and carefully placed stones. The garden is designated a Special Place of Scenic Beauty by the Japanese government.

The Kara-mon (唐門, Kara-mon) is the temple's gate, a structure with a curved, cusped gable and elaborate carving and metalwork. The name refers to its Chinese-derived style of construction.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name of the temple is 三宝院. Its reading in kana is さんぼういん, and in romaji it is Sanbō-in. The long vowel in the second syllable is written with a macron: Sanbō-in, not Sanbo-in.

The name breaks down into three kanji:

• 三 — read here as san, meaning "three". This is the basic numeral three.
• 宝 — read here as bō, meaning "treasure" or "jewel". On its own the character is read takara, and it appears in many compounds relating to precious things.
• 院 — read here as in, meaning "temple" or "institution". In Japanese Buddhist usage, 院 often marks a sub-temple or a cloistered hall within a larger complex, which is exactly Sanbō-in's position within Daigo-ji.

Together, 三宝院 means "Temple of the Three Jewels". The Three Jewels are the three things in which a Buddhist takes refuge: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teaching), and the Sangha (the community of monks). The name is a direct translation of that concept into Japanese, and it is a common element in Buddhist temple names.

Note the sound change in the middle of the word. The character 宝 is read hō in isolation, but after 三 it becomes bō, giving sanbō rather than sanhō. This kind of voicing, in which an unvoiced consonant becomes voiced between vowels or after a prefix, is a regular feature of Japanese compound words.

Visiting and Context

Sanbō-in stands within the Daigo-ji complex on Mount Daigo, in Fushimi-ku, in the south-eastern part of Kyoto. It is reached from Daigo Station on the Tōzai subway line, and the temple is a short walk from the station.

The temple is one of the principal sights of the Daigo-ji complex, and it is visited alongside the other halls and pagodas on the mountain. The garden is at its most crowded during the cherry-blossom season in spring and during the autumn colour season, when the Daigo-ji complex as a whole receives large numbers of visitors. The garden is viewed from the veranda of the Omote-Shoin rather than walked through, following the traditional practice for pond gardens of this type.

For students of Japanese, Sanbō-in is a useful name to know because it illustrates several features of the language at once: the on-yomi readings of common kanji, the voicing change in compounds, and the use of 院 as a suffix for Buddhist institutions. The name also connects directly to basic Buddhist vocabulary, since the Three Jewels appear constantly in Japanese religious and cultural texts.