| Tentakuzan Ryokoji
Sect: Tofukuji school, Rinzai Zen
Founder: Kohaku Daisen; 240th abbot of Tofukuji, Kyoto,
and 24th chief priest of Ryokoji in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture)
Founded in 1632; moved to present location in 1656
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| In the early 17th century, Priest Kohaku
of Ryokoji temple in Ise (present-day Suzuka city, Mie prefecture)
was invited by the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, to visit
Edo. Kohaku lectured on the Zen text Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff
Record) at Konchiin temple in Shiba, which earned him instant
acclaim. Before long, feudal lords and other well known
figures became Buddhist adherents under his guidance. At
first he lived in a small hut on a small plot of borrowed
land nearby the home of the bakufu doctor, Ohashi Ryukei,
with whom he was friendly, but later he was granted considerable
land in Ushigome Yarai-shita. Here he constructed a temple,
giving it the same name as his temple in Ise-Tentakuzan
Ryokoji. It was originally conceived as a branch temple
of Ryokoji in Ise.
Two important patron families of Ryokoji in Edo at that
time were the Kyogoku and Ogasawara, whose mausolea were
located here. In 1656, when the land was appropriated
by the government, through the auspices of the feudal
lord Sakai of Sanuki, the temple was granted 3,600 tsubo
(one tsubo equals 3.31 square meters ) of land in Komagome
village in Toshima district and was moved to its present
location.
(From Ise Ryokoji shi)
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