Taiseki-ji Temple

Overview

Taiseki-ji (大石寺, たいせきじ) is a Buddhist temple in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, in the foothills of Mount Fuji. Its full formal name is Tahō Fuji Dainichirenge-san Taiseki-ji (多宝富士大日蓮華山 大石寺), and it is also called Sōhonzan Taiseki-ji (総本山大石寺), meaning "Head Temple Taiseki-ji." It is the administrative centre of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.

The temple was founded on 15 November 1290, in the third year of the Shōō era (正応, しょうおう), during the Kamakura period. It stands at coordinates 35.2806056, 138.5845333, on land in the Kamijo area of Fujinomiya.

Taiseki-ji is the home of the Dai Gohonzon, the object of worship central to Nichiren Shoshu, and it draws pilgrims from a number of countries. The grounds are open to the public for sightseeing, but the religious buildings are restricted to registered believers.

History

The founder was Nikkō Shōnin, one of the senior disciples of Nichiren Daishonin. He established the temple in 1290 on a parcel of land donated by the pious believer Daigyō Sonrei, better known as Nanjō Tokimitsu (1259–1332).

The site lies in the Kamijo district of Fujinomiya, in the foothills of Mount Fuji. Taiseki-ji is counted among the eight temples of Kōmon and among the Fuji Five Mountains.

What Stands There Today

The temple complex includes a number of named structures. Among them are the Sanmon (山門), the temple gate; the Kyakuden (客殿), a reception hall; the Daikōdō (大講堂), a great lecture hall; the Mieidō (御影堂); the Hōandō (奉安殿); the Hōandō (宝安殿); and the Gojū-no-tō (五重塔), a five-storey pagoda. The grounds also include a site known as Mutsubo (六壺).

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 大石寺. It is read たいせきじ in kana, and rendered in romaji as Taiseki-ji. The name breaks down into three kanji:

• 大 — read tai here. It means "great" or "large." This is a common kanji, and its reading shifts depending on the word it appears in; in many compounds it is read dai, as in the temple's own formal name Tahō (多宝).
• 石 — read seki here. It means "stone" or "rock." On its own the character is read ishi; in compounds it frequently becomes seki, as it does in this name.
• 寺 — read ji here. It means "temple." This is the standard kanji for a Buddhist temple, and it appears at the end of temple names across Japan. On its own it is read tera.

So the whole name means something like "Great Stone Temple." The reading Taiseki-ji combines the Chinese-derived readings of the first two characters with the temple suffix -ji.

The formal name, Tahō Fuji Dainichirenge-san Taiseki-ji, adds a mountain name before the temple name. This is a convention in Japanese Buddhism: a temple is given a sangō (山号), a "mountain name," which precedes the temple's own name in formal usage. Here the mountain name is Tahō Fuji Dainichirenge-san.

Visiting and Context

Taiseki-ji is located in Kamijo, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, in the foothills of Mount Fuji. The grounds are open to the public for sightseeing. The religious buildings, however, are restricted to registered believers, and adherents of the Soka Gakkai are not permitted entrance to the Head Temple grounds.

The temple is the administrative centre of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism and the home of the Dai Gohonzon, its object of worship. Pilgrims travel to it from various countries. As a site counted among the eight temples of Kōmon and among the Fuji Five Mountains, it holds a defined place within the geography of Nichiren Shoshu temple networks in the Fuji region.