Yakuri-ji Temple

Overview

Yakuri-ji (八栗寺, Yakuri-ji) is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Takamatsu, the capital city of Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It is the 85th of the 88 sites that make up the Shikoku Pilgrimage, the circuit of temples associated with the monk Kūkai. The temple sits on the western slopes of Mount Goken (五剣山, Goken-zan), a peak whose name means "five swords."

Shingon (真言, Shingon) is a school of esoteric Buddhism that Kūkai founded in Japan in the early ninth century. Its temples are organised around ritual, mantra and mandala, and Yakuri-ji belongs to this tradition. On the pilgrimage route the temple follows Yashima-ji, site 84, and is followed by Shido-ji, site 86.

History

Yakuri-ji was founded in 829, during the Heian period (794–1185). In the Japanese era system, that year fell in Tenchō 6 — the sixth year of the Tenchō era (天長, Tenchō). The Heian period takes its name from the city of Heian-kyō, the imperial capital established in 794, which is now Kyoto.

The founding date places Yakuri-ji within the lifetime of Kūkai, who lived from 774 to 835. The Shikoku Pilgrimage tradition attributes the route's temples to him, and a foundation year in the 820s fits that tradition: the pilgrimage's sites are concentrated in the period when Kūkai was active in establishing Shingon institutions. The temple's position as number 85 of 88 places it near the end of the circuit, which runs clockwise around Shikoku and finishes at Ōkubo-ji in Tokushima Prefecture.

What Stands There Today

The temple occupies a mountainside position on Mount Goken, above the city of Takamatsu. Its setting on the western slopes means the approach involves a climb, as is typical of the mountain temples on the pilgrimage; several of the 88 sites are sited on high ground and are reached on foot or by cable car.

The coordinates of the temple are 34.3598889 north, 134.1395278 east, placing it in the northern part of Kagawa Prefecture, on the coast-facing side of Shikoku that looks across the Seto Inland Sea. Takamatsu is the largest city in Kagawa and the usual base for visiting the temples of the prefecture's northern stretch.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 八栗寺. It is read in kana as やくりじ, and in romaji as Yakuri-ji.

The name breaks down into three kanji:

• 八 — read here as ya. The character means "eight." It is one of the most basic numerals in Japanese and appears in a great many place names and temple names.
• 栗 — read here as kuri. The character means "chestnut." In this compound the k of kuri voices to g under the influence of the preceding syllable, so the two characters together are read Yaguri, contracted in the temple's name to Yakuri.
• 寺 — read here as ji. The character means "temple" and is the standard suffix for Buddhist temple names in Japanese. The same character appears in the names of the neighbouring pilgrimage sites Yashima-ji and Shido-ji.

So the whole name means, roughly, "Eight Chestnut Temple." The reading of the first two characters together is not obvious from the characters alone — a reader who knew only the standard readings might expect Hachikuri — which is why the kana reading やくりじ is worth learning alongside the written form. The suffix 寺 is pronounced ji in this name; the same character can also be read tera, and both readings are common across Japanese temple names.

Visiting and Context

Yakuri-ji is one of the 88 temples of the Shikoku Pilgrimage (四国遍路, Shikoku henro), the circuit that circles the island of Shikoku. Pilgrims traditionally travel the route on foot, wearing white and carrying a staff, and visit the temples in numerical order. Yakuri-ji is the 85th stop, so a pilgrim walking the full route reaches it late in the journey, after Yashima-ji and before Shido-ji.

The pilgrimage is associated with Kūkai, known after his death by the honorific title Kōbō Daishi (弘法大師, Kōbō Daishi). The route's 88 temples are distributed across all four prefectures of Shikoku: Tokushima, Kōchi, Ehime and Kagawa. Yakuri-ji lies in Kagawa, the prefecture in the north-east of the island, and its neighbours on the route — Yashima-ji at 84 and Shido-ji at 86 — are also in Kagawa, which makes the northern stretch of the circuit a compact group of sites.

For a visitor based in Takamatsu, Yakuri-ji is one of several pilgrimage temples within reach of the city, alongside Yashima-ji and others in the same prefecture. The temple's mountain setting on Mount Goken, with its five-peaked profile, is part of what distinguishes it from the lowland temples on the route.