Misplaced Pages

Sanuki Kokubun-niji ruins
Native name 讃岐国分尼寺跡 (Japanese)
Foundation stone from the Sanuki Kokubun-niji ruins
Type	Buddhist temple ruins
Location	Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Coordinates	34°18′35.31″N 133°57′44.88″E / 34.3098083°N 133.9624667°E / 34.3098083; 133.9624667
Founder	c.Emperor Shōmu
Built	Nara period
Location of Sanuki Kokubun-niji ruins in Kagawa PrefectureShow map of Kagawa PrefectureSanuki Kokubunni-ji (Japan)Show map of Japan
National Historic Site of Japan

The Sanuki Kokubun-niji ruins (讃岐国分尼寺跡) is an archaeological site with the ruins of a Nara period Buddhist nunnery in the Kokubunji neighborhood of the city of Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture Japan. Its ruins were designated as a National Historic Site in 1928.

History

The Shoku Nihongi records that in 741, as the country recovered from a major smallpox epidemic, Emperor Shōmu ordered that a monastery and nunnery be established in every province, the kokubunji (国分寺). These temples were built to a semi-standardized template, and served both to spread Buddhist orthodoxy to the provinces, and to emphasize the power of the Nara period centralized government under the Ritsuryō system. While the sites of most of the kokubun-ji monasteries are either known or have been discovered, very few sites of the kokubun-niji nunneries are known.

The Sanuki Kokubun-niji site is located approximately two kilometers northeast of the Sanuki Kokubun-ji. The site occupies a trapezoidal compound 180-210 meters east-to-west by 180 meters north-to-south and per archaeological excavations conducted in 1982 was found to contain 19 foundation stones from what is presumed to have been the Main Hall of the nunnery, as well a roof tiles and bricks. The spacing and orientation of the foundations indicates a seven by four bay building. It is believed that the Lecture Hall and residence was lined up from south to north, as a further excavation has found more large foundation stones scatters on the north side of the precinct, with a rain drainage ditch in parallel. However, excavations are hampered by the presence of a later Buddhist temple, Hokke-ji, which now occupies the approximate center of the site, and many details of the original Nara-period temple remain uncertain.

The site is about a 20-minute walk from Hashioka Station on the JR Shikoku Yosan Line.

See also

• List of Historic Sites of Japan (Kagawa)
• provincial temple

References

1. 讃岐国分尼寺跡 (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
2. Brown, Delmer M. (1993). Cambridge History of Japan vol. I. Cambridge University Press. p. 255.
3. Yiengpruksawan, Mimi Hall (1998). Hiraizumi: Buddhist Art and Regional Politics in Twelfth-Century Japan. Harvard University Press. pp. 22f.
4. Shively, Donald H.; McCullough, William H. (1999). Cambridge History of Japan vol. II (p.31f.). Cambridge University Press.
5. ^ Isomura, Yukio; Sakai, Hideya (2012). 国指定史跡事典 [National Historic Site Encyclopedia] (in Japanese). 学生社. ISBN 4-311-75040-4.

External links

• Takamatsu City home page(in Japanese)

• Historic Sites of Japan
• Sanuki Province
• Nara period
• Buddhist archaeological sites in Japan