Jōroku-ji Temple

Overview

Jōroku-ji Temple is a Sōtō Zen Buddhist temple located in Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture. It's the 24th temple on the Awa Chichibu Kannon pilgrimage route. According to temple legend, its origins trace back to 650 AD (Hakuchi 1), when a Buddhist nun from the Kantō region established a hermitage on this site. Around the mid-Muromachi period (1487-1491), Hosokawa Shigeyuki, the guardian daimyo of Awa, Mikawa, and Sanuki provinces, invited Kanga Yōken to change the temple's sect to Sōtō Zen Buddhism, becoming its middle-revival founder and developing the temple grounds. During the Edo period, the successive lords of the Tokushima domain, the Hachisuka family, provided patronage and further developed the temple. The temple grounds contain the graves of Hosokawa Shigeyuki, Mochitaka, and Masayuki, as well as numerous graves of prominent Hachisuka retainers. These include those of the Inadag, Yamada (family heads), Satomi, and Ikoma families (middle-ranking officials), and various government officials. Jōroku-ji Temple boasts numerous buildings designated as Important Cultural Properties of Japan. The mountain gate, built at the end of the Muromachi period, is the oldest such structure in the prefecture. Many of the buildings were damaged during the Sengoku period, offering a palpable sense of the era's history. The Jōroku Butsu, a statue of the Holy Kannon, created at the end of the Heian period, stands as a majestic symbol of the temple. The temple also bears witness to a tragic event from the Sengoku period: the assassination of the Shinakai clan, the rulers of this land, by Motochika Chōsokabe. The ‘Blood Ceiling,’ preserving the bloodstains from this event, remains a poignant reminder of this violent history. This ceiling is a precious historical site that offers a powerful glimpse into the harsh realities of the Sengoku period. Behind Jōroku-ji Temple, on the mountainside, sits Akiha Gongen, the temple's guardian shrine. Dedicated to Akiha Sanshakubō, it's believed to offer protection against fire.