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Eihei-ji

Buddhist temple in Fukui Prefecture, Japan

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  • 7 chapters

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Its founder was Eihei Dōgen, who brought Sōtō Zen from China to Japan during the 13th century. The ashes of Dōgen and a memorial to him are in the Jōyōden (the Founder's Hall) at Eihei-ji. William Bodiford of UCLA writes that, "The rural monastery Eiheiji in particular aggrandized Dōgen to bolster its own authority vis-à-vis its institutional rivals within the Sōtō denomination."

Eihei-ji is a training monastery with more than two hundred monks and nuns in residence. As of 2003, Eihei-ji had 800,000 visitors per year, less than half the number of tourists who came ten years before. Visitors with Zen experience may participate after making prior arrangements, and all visitors are treated as religious trainees.

In keeping with Zen's Mahayana tradition, the iconography in various buildings is an array of potential confusion for newcomers: at the Sanmon are four kings standing guard named Shitenno; the Buddha hall's main altar has three statues of Buddhas past, present and future; the Hatto displays Kannon the bodhisattva of compassion, and four white lions (called the a-un no shishi); the Yokushitsu has Baddabara; the Sanshokaku has a statue of Hotei; and the Tosu displays Ucchusma.

History

Dōgen became a monk at age 14 and studied at Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei. At age 24, he traveled to Song China and became a disciple of Rujing at Tiantong Temple on Mount Tendo, where he devoted himself to zazen. He returned to Japan, carrying on the Zen tradition of "shikantaza" (simple sitting). He initially resided at Kennin-ji in Kyoto, and later built Kōshō-ji in the suburbs of Fukakusa (abolished and later rebuilt in Uji, Kyoto), where he devoted himself to preaching and writing. However, he faced severe persecution from the Tendai Buddhist forces on Mount Hiei. At the request of one of his followers, a samurai named Hatano Yoshishige, Dōgen left Kōshō-ji Temple in 1243 and relocated to Shibishō in Echizen Province, where Yoshishige's territory was located. Yoshishige initially invited Dōgen to take over Yoshimine-ji, a Tendai temple, associated with the Hakusan mountain cult, was located in the snowy mountains. Dōgen spent the winter here, and the following year, in 1244, he built Sanshoho Daibutsu-ji, closer to the village than Yoshimine-ji. This marked the founding of Eihei-ji, and in 1246, the temple name was changed to Kisshōzan Eihei-ji. The temple name comes from "Eihei," the era name during the reign of Emperor Ming of the Later Han Dynasty, when Buddhism was first introduced to China, and means "eternal peace."

Dōgen appointed a successor, but sometime after his death the abbacy of Eihei-ji became hotly disputed, a schism now called the sandai sōron. Until 1468, Eihei-ji was not held by the current Keizan line of Sōtō, but by the line of Dōgen's Chinese disciple Jakuen. At one point, the temple fell into such decline that it was practically abandoned, but the 5th abbot, Giun, rebuilt it and established the foundations that continue to this day. After 1468, when the Keizan line took ownership of Eihei-ji in addition to its major temple Sōji-ji and others, Jakuen's line and other alternate lines became less prominent.

As Eihei-ji and Sōji-ji became rivals over the centuries, Eihei-ji made claims based on the fact of Dōgen's original residence there. William Bodiford of UCLA wrote:

"Dōgen's memory has helped keep Eihei-ji financially secure, in good repair, and filled with monks and lay pilgrims who look to Dōgen for religious inspiration. Eiheiji has become Dōgen's place, the temple where Dōgen is remembered, where Dōgen's Zen is practiced, where Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō is published, where it is read, and where one goes to learn Dōgen's Buddhism. As we remember Dōgen, we should also remember that remembrance is not value neutral...."

The entire temple was destroyed by fire several times, most notably in 1340 and again in 1473. During the late 16th century, disciples of Ikkō-shū attacked and burned the temple and surrounding buildings. As a consequence, its oldest standing structure dates from 1794.

From the Muromachi period through the Azuchi-Momoyama period, the temple was patronized by the Imperial family. In 1615, during the early Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate issued a decree establishing it as a head temple with equal rank to Sōji-ji.

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