長泉寺 Chousen-ji Chosenji Temple
|
Chosenji Temple in Kakuda City, Miyagi Prefecture, is a temple of the Soto sect and one of the most distinctive temples in the Tohoku region. The principal object of worship is Shakamuni Nyorai. Its mountain name is Kogenzan or Rokkokubo. It has a historical connection with Soneiji Temple (Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture), which was appointed as one of the three head administrative temples in eastern Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868).
Chosenji Temple was originally founded in Ishikawa Town in Fukushima Prefecture in 1436 by Zen Priest Sokuan Sogaku under the sponsorship of Ishikawa Mochimitsu, the castellan of Miyoshi Castle in Iwaki province (present Fukushima Prefecture). When Ishikawa Akimitsu was removed to Kakuda by Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Oshu Shioki (punitive action against powerful clans in the Tohoku region) in 1598, the temple was also relocated to its current location.
Although the temple buildings were constructed in relatively recent times, the temple is composed of the main hall, the Zazen hall, the guest house, the hall to enshrine ancestral tablets, priests’ quarters, bell tower, the main gate and the middle gate. The middle gate, Gagyu-mon, used to be the inner gate of Kakuda Castle. In back of the main hall is Otamaya (the mausoleum), where the painted wooden statues of Ishikawa Akimitsu and his seven loyal retainers, who followed their lord to the grave.
Chosenji Temple was originally founded in Ishikawa Town in Fukushima Prefecture in 1436 by Zen Priest Sokuan Sogaku under the sponsorship of Ishikawa Mochimitsu, the castellan of Miyoshi Castle in Iwaki province (present Fukushima Prefecture). When Ishikawa Akimitsu was removed to Kakuda by Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Oshu Shioki (punitive action against powerful clans in the Tohoku region) in 1598, the temple was also relocated to its current location.
Although the temple buildings were constructed in relatively recent times, the temple is composed of the main hall, the Zazen hall, the guest house, the hall to enshrine ancestral tablets, priests’ quarters, bell tower, the main gate and the middle gate. The middle gate, Gagyu-mon, used to be the inner gate of Kakuda Castle. In back of the main hall is Otamaya (the mausoleum), where the painted wooden statues of Ishikawa Akimitsu and his seven loyal retainers, who followed their lord to the grave.
- address
- 69 Kakuda Chosenji, Kakuda, Miyagi Prefecture 981-1505
- name
- Chosenji Temple
- phone
- 0224-62-1004
- hp
- http://www1.odn.ne.jp/chosenji/