択嶳恄幮丂憹夑忋恖峴嬈婰奊姫
Tanzan-jinja shrine:
Zouga Shounin gyougouki emaki
(Illustrated Scrolls of the Accounts
of the Deeds of Zouga Shounin)
(Scroll 1, Scroll 2)

對杮 懡晲曱墢婲奊姫
Tounomine engi emaki
(Illustrated Scrolls of the Tounomine)

幨杮 懡晲曱墢婲奊姫
Tonomine engi emaki
乮manuscript乯
With comparative images of silk print and manuscript

懡晲曱墢婲
Tomine engi (Tales of the Origins of Tonomine)

惞摽懢巕奊揱
Shotoku Taishi eden (Illustrated Biography of Shotoku Taishi)

丂The origin of Tounomine can be traced back to the legend of the erection of a thirteen-story pagoda in 678 (Hakuhou 7) when the remains of Fujiwara (or Nakatomi) Kamatari, the victor in the Taika reformation, were re-interred there by his son Jouei on his return from Tang China. (The present-day pagoda was rebuilt in 1506 (Eishou 3) after a fire, and has been designated an important cultural property.) Tounomine developed around the Myourakuji temple and the Shouryou-in where Buddhism and Shinto beliefs were interwoven, but as a result of the Meiji-era government policy of separating Buddhism and Shinto, it became known as Taizan-jinja shrine丂where the renamed Tounomine Daimyoujin (Great Bright Deity of Tounomine) was to be worshipped. Whenever the state or the Fujiwara clan were threatened by crisis, it is thought that the mountain behind the main hall would rumble and the sacred statue of Kamatari would splinter. A record of more that ten such events is still extant. During the mid-Heian period, Zouga Shounin entered the temple and spread faith in the Lotus Sutra to the extent that Tounomine flourished as a center of Buddhist learning in medieval Nara. In recent years it has become clear that the scholar-priest Eisai, who composed a commentary on the Taishiden (a biography of Shoutoku Taishi), resided at Tounomine; this fact is increasingly gaining scholarly attention. Tounomine possesses many objects designated National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. Another special characteristic not found at other temples and shrines is the existence of a wealth of historical records associated with the performance art of ennen dance, which was performed within temple precincts.

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Imege Database
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The picture of the background is Tanzan-jinjya.

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