Provincial temple

Mutsu Kokubunji —Yakushido

The Kokubun-ji (国分寺) are Buddhist temples established in each of the provinces of Japan by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794). . The official name for each temple was Konkomyo Shitenno Gokoku-ji (Konkōmyō Shitennō Gokoku-ji )

History

The Shoku Nihongi records that in 741, as the country recovered from a major smallpox epidemic, Emperor Shōmu ordered that a monastery and nunnery be established in every province. Each temple was to have one statue of Shaka Nyorai and two attendant Bodhisattva statues, and a copy of the Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. Later, it was added that each temple must also have a seven-story pagoda, copies of ten volumes of the Lotus Sutra and a copy of the Golden Light Sutra in golden letters. To provide funds for the upkeep, each temple and nunnery was to be assigned 50 households and 10 chō of paddy fields (approximately 10 hectares). Each temple would have 20 monks and each nunnery would have 10 nuns. These temples were built to a semi-standardized template, and served both to spread Buddhist orthodoxy to the provinces, and to emphasize the power of the Nara period centralized government under the Ritsuryō system.

The precedent for this system was the Daxingshan Temples built by Emperor Wen and Yang Jian, who founded the Sui dynasty. Later, in the Tang dynasty, there were Daun-ji provincial temples built by Empress Wu Zetian, Ryuko-ji provincial temples built by Emperor Zhongzong, and Kaigen-ji provincial temples) built by Emperor Xuanzong.

However, despite the edict, the expense for creation of these temples was very great, and the kokushi of most provinces procrastinated on construction. In November 747, the exasperated emperor transferred the construction system from kokushi to the gunji, or a county-level administrator and granted hereditary succession of the post upon completion of the temple. This led to the full-scale construction of most provincial temples. Most of the kokubunji were located in or near the provincial capitals, and, together with the provincial offices, were the largest buildings in the province. In addition, Todai-ji and Hokke-ji in Yamato Province were designated as the head temple and head nunnery for the system. The kokubunji system persisted into the mid-Heian period, but as the Ritsuryō system began to collapse and financial support from the government disappeared, many of the provincial temples and provincial nunneries fell into disuse. A considerable number of provincial temples continued to exist even into the modern period, but as temples of a different sect or with a different character from the original provincial temples. Many of the provincial nunneries were not restored. Many of the sites of the original temples and nunneries are known, and some have been designated National Historic Sites after archaeological excavations.

Modern place names

Modern place names based on this etymology include:

• Kokubunji, Kagawa
• Kokubunji, Tokyo
• Kokubunji, Tochigi

See also

• 735–737 Japanese smallpox epidemic
• Fuchū
• Glossary of Japanese Buddhism
• Ichinomiya (primary shrines of the province)
• Soja shrine (shrines that consolidated the deity for every province)
• Kokufu