◆Rinzai-shu (Daitokuji-temple sect) / History of Jingosan houtoku-ji temple
Jingosan Houtoku-ji temple was built in 1638 by Munenori Tajima Yagyu to
pray for the late Munemitsu Sekishusai, and later, it became the family
cemetery for the Yagyu family. (Their family cemetery in Edo or presently
Tokyo is in Shitaya-Kotoku-ji temple)After the death of Munenori, 200 koku
(rice production amount) in Shou Yagyu village were added to the land for
the temple domain by Shogun Iemitsu's wish on the new year day in 1647.
In addition, after the youngest son Mutsumaru at age of 11 was sent to
be supervised by Priest Tenyu in Daitoku-ji temple, he eventually became
the first master priest for this temple. The master name is Priest Gisen
Retsudo (1636-1702). The building during the Retsudou era was unfortunately
burned down by the great fire in 1711, but the statue of Munemori which
was created in 1651 by a Buddhist statue sculptor in Kyoto with order of
his son Munefuyu Hidanokami before his father's 7th anniversary and the
statue of Monk Takuan which was created in 1657 by the same sculptor were
fortunately escaped from the disaster; therefore, those statues with the
atmosphere of ancient times are still remained with the right/left platform
of the Sakyamuni statue at present. While the building was being devastated
after the abolition of domain and the encampment of Masakizaka, the mountain
gate, the mortuary chapel, and the temple bell with the inscription of
Priest Takuwan were sold during the late Meiji period, and the temple without
the master was facing an abolishment crisis with the deactivation. In 1921,
Motoo Yagyu as a descendant of Bishu-Yagyu donated huge amount of money
by will of his brother or the late Kazuyoshi Yagyu, and then the temple
fate finally started getting better as its recovery construction for the
main building. In 1926, Sadayoshi Hashimoto visited the temple and achieved
the recovery for both physical and mental aspects such as maintenance of
temple territory, expansion of building, and establishment of Kensei-kai,
then after the war, he also renewed the surroundings as managing the Seibigaku
dormitory for child welfare facility and constructing Dojo of Masakizaka-Kenzen
until now.
January 24, 1972 The death of Yoshisada / Posthumous title: Zen Master
Priest Daitoku Toudou Yoshisada. Later, Priest Tsugunao Hashimoto became
the chief priest.
The main building and the grave of the Yagyu family were officially designated
as the cultural heritage of Nara-city in 1992, and disassembling and repairing
the main building was started at the time and completed in 1996.
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