Enkaku-ji: A Rinzai Buddhist Temple of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Ryukyu Kingdom
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page14 sections
History
Enkaku-ji is a Rinzai Buddhist temple site in Naha, Japan, built under the Second Shō dynasty in the Zen tradition. Construction began in 1492 on the orders of King Shō Shin to commemorate his father, King Shō En, and the temple was formally founded in 1494. Located immediately north of Shuri Castle, it served as the bodaiji, or mortuary temple, of the dynasty’s kings and was regarded as the headquarters of Rinzai Buddhism in the Ryūkyū Kingdom.
Foundation and royal patronage
The temple was modeled on Engaku-ji in Kamakura and followed the traditional Zen arrangement of seven principal buildings. Kaiin Shōko, a Rinzai monk from Nanzen-ji in Kyoto who had introduced Rinzai Buddhism to the Ryūkyū Islands, became Enkaku-ji’s founding abbot. A royal ancestral shrine called Goshōdō was established beside the abbot’s quarters. The complex also included a pond for the Buddhist release of living creatures and a bridge, while Enkan-chi Pond and a sutra hall were constructed in front of the temple. The sutra hall was later converted into Benzaiten-dō, a shrine associated with Benzaiten, a Buddhist deity linked especially with water, music, eloquence, and prosperity.
Enkaku-ji prospered through the patronage of the Second Shō dynasty, the royal house that ruled the Ryūkyū Kingdom from the fifteenth century until its annexation by Japan in 1879. Enkan-chi Pond hosted banquets for Chinese investiture envoys, representatives sent to confer formal recognition on Ryūkyūan kings. After coming-of-age and investiture ceremonies, the kings visited Enkaku-ji along with Tennō-ji and Tenkai-ji.
Rituals and connections with Japan
The temple was also associated with the annual Nūbī water-offering festival, which prayed for peace in the kingdom and for the king’s health and long life. On the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, a royal envoy collected sacred water at Hedo. A noro, a female religious official in the traditional Ryūkyūan kingdom, conducted prayers, after which the water was stored at Enkaku-ji and presented to the royal government before dawn on New Year’s Day. The ceremony is now reenacted in front of the temple’s main gate.
A large bell connected with Enkaku-ji was cast in 1495 in Suō Province, now part of Hofu in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Its inscription names the smith and carpenter Yamato Akihide and points to links with the Ōuchi clan, which then ruled Suō. A separate chronology dates the casting of a great bell and the construction of its bell tower to 1496.
Destruction and archaeological recovery
After the Ryūkyū Kingdom was abolished in 1879, Enkaku-ji’s halls, including the Buddha Hall, Sanmon, and abbot’s quarters, were designated former National Treasures in 1933. The temple was destroyed during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, and only the Hōjō Bridge survived from the principal complex.
Faculty housing for the University of the Ryukyus was built on the site in 1948, followed by university athletic grounds around 1965. These developments destroyed or buried foundations, stone paving, and other remains underground. The university completed its relocation in 1984, allowing investigation of the remains and planning for restoration to proceed. The remaining grounds, apart from the former university site, are now part of the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts.
The main gate was reconstructed and the life-release pond repaired in 1968. Enkaku-ji was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1972, while the Hōjō Bridge received designation as an Important Cultural Property in the same year. The related approach paths, pond retaining walls, and paving were included with the bridge. The reconstructed main gate and the railings of the life-release pond bridge are designated tangible cultural properties of Okinawa Prefecture.
Cultural recovery and reconstruction
Portraits of the successive kings of the Second Shō dynasty were once kept at Enkaku-ji. They were transferred to Nakagusuku Palace after the kingdom ended and disappeared during the Battle of Okinawa. Their appearance survives in prewar black-and-white photographs taken by Kamakura Yoshitarō. Satō Fumihiko reconstructed ten portraits in 1996, and Tokyo University of the Arts reconstructed the portrait of King Shō Iku in 2012. In 2024, portraits of Kings Shō Kei and Shō Iku were among 22 Okinawan cultural objects returned from the United States. Their return provided the first postwar confirmation that original portraits from the collection had survived.
Two tablets that had belonged to the Buddha Hall’s furnishings were found in storage at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum in 2014 and identified as valuable surviving cultural-property materials. Fragments of the paired Niō, guardian figures traditionally placed at Buddhist temple entrances, were also used to reconstruct the statues formerly installed at the gate. The six-year reconstruction was completed in 2021, and the figures were exhibited at the Kyushu National Museum before a later public showing in Okinawa.
Enkaku-ji once had numerous subordinate temples, including Sōgen-ji, Shōun-ji, Tōrin-ji, Shōdai-ji, Sairai-in, Chōju-ji, Kōgon-ji, Tōzen-ji, Seitai-ji, Kōzen-ji, Hōon-ji, Jushō-in, Raikō-in, Fukujū-in, and Shiunkan.
Remains
The surviving site preserves parts of a Zen-style complex modeled on Kamakura’s Engaku-ji. The outer gate, life-release pond, Hōjō Bridge, associated stonework, and archaeological foundations define the remains. The principal halls that once stood beyond the bridge were destroyed in 1945, while postwar university construction damaged or buried portions of the earlier paving and foundations. Ongoing investigation is used to clarify the former arrangement and support reconstruction.
Gates, pond, and bridge
Sōmon
The Sōmon was the first gate encountered in the temple complex. It is three bays wide, with a central doorway and one bay on either side that formerly held a Niō guardian figure. The standing gate is a reconstruction based on prewar drawings and photographs.
Life-release pond
The life-release pond lies outside the main gate. The Buddhist practice associated with such ponds involved releasing living creatures as an act of religious merit. The pond was repaired in 1968, and its bridge retains railings whose main posts carry small carved lions.
Hōjō Bridge
The Hōjō Bridge is a stone beam bridge made by Chinese stonemasons during the early period of the Second Shō dynasty. An inscription on its balustrade is dated 1498. The bridge’s related approach paths, stonework around the pond, and paving are also preserved as part of the surviving cultural landscape.
Enkan-chi Pond
Enkan-chi Pond was built in front of the temple. A sutra repository stood on an island within it, reached by the Tennyō Bridge, also called Kanrenkyō. This single-span stone arch has a balustrade, a raised floor above the central arch, and a curved camel-back profile associated with bridges in southern China. It dates from the early Second Shō-dynasty period and is traditionally assigned to 1502.
Material and artistic remains
Temple bells
Three former temple bells are preserved at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum. They include bells dated 1495, 1495, and 1697. Although their inscriptions use Chinese era dates, the bells are described as Japanese-style castings.
Royal portraits and tablets
The former royal portrait collection is represented by prewar photographs and reconstructed paintings. The original images were moved from Enkaku-ji and later lost during the Battle of Okinawa, while the surviving photographic images are displayed at Shuri Castle. The two tablets recovered in 2014 preserve material connected with the furnishings of the former Buddha Hall.
