Yamashina Hongan-ji

Overview

Yamashina Hongan-ji (山科本願寺, Yamashina Honganji) was a fortified Buddhist temple in the Yamashina district of Kyoto, founded in 1478 and destroyed in the 1530s. It served as the headquarters of the Ikkō-ikki (一向一揆, ikkō-ikki), a movement of militant Jōdo Shinshū (浄土真宗, Jōdo Shinshū, "True Pure Land" Buddhism) adherents — warrior monks and lay believers who took up arms against samurai rule. The temple was more than a place of worship: it was a castle, surrounded by a fortified temple town (jōkamachi, 城下町, jōkamachi, "castle town") that housed a large community of merchants, artisans and believers. At its height it was one of the most formidable religious and military complexes in Japan.

History

The temple was established in 1478, in the tenth year of the Bunmei era (文明, Bunmei), during the Muromachi period (1336–1573). It was built in Yamashina, in what is now Yamashina-ku in the east of Kyoto, by the leadership of the Jōdo Shinshū sect. The sect's head temple, Hongan-ji (本願寺, Honganji), had been repeatedly displaced from Kyoto by rival Buddhist establishments, and the move to Yamashina gave the community a secure base outside the city's ecclesiastical politics.

Under the sect's leader Rennyo (蓮如, Rennyo), the Jōdo Shinshū movement grew rapidly among peasants, merchants and local warriors across central and western Japan. Yamashina Hongan-ji became the administrative and spiritual centre of this expanding network. Because the community was large, wealthy and armed, the temple was fortified: earthen ramparts, moats and gates turned the complex and its surrounding town into a stronghold.

The temple's power brought it into conflict with the secular authorities. In the 1530s, the temple was attacked and destroyed by forces allied with the Hosokawa (細川, Hosokawa) clan and other samurai powers who saw the Ikkō-ikki as a threat to their authority. The event is remembered as the Siege of Yamashina Hongan-ji. The destruction of the temple drove the sect's leadership out of Yamashina; the community eventually re-established itself at Ishiyama Hongan-ji (石山本願寺, Ishiyama Honganji), the fortified cathedral in Osaka that would later withstand a decade-long siege by Oda Nobunaga (織田信長, Oda Nobunaga).

What Stands There Today

The site of Yamashina Hongan-ji lies in present-day Yamashina-ku, Kyoto. Parts of its ruins were designated a National Historic Site in 2002, in recognition of the temple's importance as a centre of the Ikkō-ikki movement. Excavations have revealed traces of the temple's fortifications and the layout of the surrounding town. The site is marked and interpreted for visitors, but no major buildings from the original complex survive.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 山科本願寺. Its kana reading is やましなほんがんじ, and its romaji is Yamashina Honganji. The name breaks down as follows:

• 山 (やま, yama) — "mountain". A common element in Japanese place names.
• 科 (しな, shina) — here used as part of the place name Yamashina; the character itself can mean "section" or "category", but in this name it functions phonetically as part of the district name.
• 本 (ほん, hon) — "main", "original" or "true". Here it marks the temple as the principal or true seat of the sect.
• 願 (がん, gan) — "vow" or "wish". In Jōdo Shinshū, this refers specifically to Amida Buddha's original vow to save all beings.
• 寺 (じ, ji) — "temple".

So 本願寺 (Honganji) means "Temple of the Original Vow", a name that refers to the central vow of Amida Buddha in Pure Land Buddhism. 山科 (Yamashina) is the district of Kyoto where the temple stood, so the full name means "Hongan-ji of Yamashina" — the sect's main temple, distinguished by its location from the other Hongan-ji foundations that followed it.

The temple was also known as Yamashina Midō (山科御堂, Yamashina Midō), where 御堂 (midō) means "hall" or "sanctuary" — literally "the Yamashina Hall".

Visiting and Context

The site is in Yamashina-ku, in the east of Kyoto, an area that also contains the famous Daigo-ji (醍醐寺, Daigoji) temple complex. The ruins are an open historic site rather than a working temple, so visitors should expect foundations, markers and explanatory panels rather than standing buildings. For students of Japanese, the site is a useful entry point into the vocabulary of medieval Japanese religion and warfare: Ikkō-ikki (一向一揆), jōkamachi (城下町) and Honganji (本願寺) all recur throughout the history of the Muromachi and Sengoku periods, and the story of Yamashina Hongan-ji is where the fortified temple-town model that later defined Ishiyama Hongan-ji first took shape.