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Tōfuku-ji was founded in the middle Heian period. In 1236, the Imperial Chancellor Kujō Michiie, designated Enni (円爾) (1201-1280) as the founding priest. It is a part of the Rinzai school, one of the two major Japanese Zen sects. |
| Description | |
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Tōfuku-ji is one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan (京都五山) or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto", along with the Tenryu-ji (天龍寺), Shokoku-ji (相国寺 - Shokoku-ji), Kennin-ji (建仁寺), and Manju-ji (満寿寺). The head temple presiding over the Gozen in Kyoto is Nanzen-ji (南禅寺) as the head temple.[3]After the completion of Shōkoku-ji by Yoshimitsu in 1386, a new ranking system was created with Nanzen-ji at the top and in a class of its own. The Nanzen-ji had the title of "First Temple of The Land" and played a supervising role.
Tōfuku-ji's main gate (三門 - Sam-mon) is the oldest Zen main gate in Japan. It is a National Treasure of Japan.
Currently, the Tōfuku-ji complex includes 24 sub-temples, though in the past the number has been as high as 53.
Tōfuku-ji's large nehan-zu painting depicts Buddha on his death bed. This massive image (7x4 meters) is the second largest in Japan. The image at nearby Sennyū-ji is the largest of its kind in Japan, measurings 8 meters x 16 meters. Both images are only rarely displayed, most recently in 2003 for three days only.
The temple features a large number of Japanese maple trees, and is most crowded during the autumn season when people flock to see the autumn foliage. It is traditional to view the leaves from the Tsūten-kyō bridge. |
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