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Tracing the History of the Ji Sect: Celebrating 1200 Years of Choraku-ji Temple
June 13 (Wednesday) to August 21 (Sunday), 2005
The Collections Hall, Galleries 13
According to temple legend, Choraku-ji, located at the foot of the Eastern Mountains of Kyoto, was built in 805 by the founder of the Buddhist Tendai sect Saicho (767-822) at the behest of Emperor Kanmu (737-806), making this year the 1200th anniversary of its founding. Tracing the History of the Ji Sect commemorates this event by presenting the temple's various cultural properties, focusing on its early manuscripts.
Many documents pertaining to the activities of the Ji ("Time") sect in Kyoto can be found today at Choraku-ji, which converted from a Tendai temple to that of the Ji sect during the Nanbokucho period (1334-1391), because of its merger in 1907 to Konko-ji, a temple that once was a Ji-sect stronghold in Kyoto. Amongst these, twenty-four missives, designated Important Cultural Properties, by successive influential yugyo, or Ji sect abbots (originally, referring to itinerant priests, who propagated the teachings of nembutsu (chanting the name of the Buddha Amida) throughout Japan), offer historical glimpses into this religious organization. Other manuscripts include letters from leading political figures of the Ashikaga shogunate and the Toyotomi clan to the abbots, tracing the activities of the abbots and showing how the faith of the Ji sect was protected over time.
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Important Cultural Property
Letter by Priest Shinkyo
Kamakura Period
Choraku-ji
Also, in conjunction with this exhibition, the sixth abbot Icchin (also known as Ta'a), one of seven abbot portrait sculptures (all Important Cultural Properties) from Choraku-ji, will be on special display in Gallery 6 in The Collections Hall from June 28, 2005.
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