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Concept
Buddhist temples in Japan
Summary
Buddhist temples or Buddhist monasteries together with Shinto shrines, are considered to be amongst the most numerous, famous, and important religious buildings in Japan. The shogunates or leaders of Japan have made it a priority to update and rebuild Buddhist temples since the Momoyama period. The Japanese word for a Buddhist monastery is tera (kun reading) and the same kanji also has the pronunciation ji (on reading), so that temple names frequently end in -dera or -ji. Another ending, -in, is normally used to refer to minor temples. Such famous temples as Kiyomizu-dera, Enryaku-ji and Kōtoku-in are temples which use the described naming pattern.
The Japanese word for a Buddhist temple Tera was anciently also written phonetically 天良, tera and is cognate with the Modern Korean Chǒl from Middle Korean Tiel, the Jurchen Taira and the reconstructed Old Chinese *dɘiaʁ, all meaning "Buddhist Monastery". These words are apparently derived from the Aramaic word for "Monastery" dērā/ dairā/ dēr (from the root dwr "to live together"), rather than from the unrelated and later Indian word for monastery vihara and may have been transmitted by the first Central Asian translators of Buddhist scriptures, such as An Shigao or Lokaksema.
In Japan, Buddhist temples co-exist with Shinto shrines and both share the basic features of Japanese traditional architecture. Both Torii and rōmon mark the entrance to a shrine as well as temples although torii is associated with Shinto and Romon is associated with Buddhism. Some shrines, for example Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū, have a Buddhist-style main gate called sōmon. Many temples have a temizuya and komainu, like a shrine. Conversely, some shrines make use of incense or have a shōrō belltower. Others – for example, Tanzan Shrine in Nara – may even have a pagoda.
Similarities between temples and shrines are also functional. Like a shrine, a Buddhist temple is not primarily a place of worship: its most important buildings are used for the safekeeping of sacred objects (the honzon, equivalent to a shrine's shintai) and are not accessible to worshipers.
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