Gokoku-ji

Gokoku-ji (護国寺) is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Tokyo's Bunkyō.

History

This Buddhist temple was established by the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who dedicated it to his mother. It is notable for surviving the American air raids during World War II, whereas most other historical sites in Tokyo were turned into rubble.

Notable interments

Like many Buddhist temples in Japan, Gokoku-ji has a cemetery on its premises. Among those interred are the remains of the following people.

Gokoku-ji (Okinawa)

Gokoku-ji (護国寺, "Protection of the Nation Temple") is a Buddhist temple in Naha, Okinawa. Established in 1367, the temple served as a major national temple for the Okinawan kingdom of Chūzan and the unified Ryūkyū Kingdom which would follow. It is perhaps most well known for its associations with Christian missionary Dr. Bernard Jean Bettelheim and with the 1853-1854 visits by Commodore Matthew Perry to Okinawa.

History

The temple was first founded in 1367, by a Japanese monk from Satsuma province by the name of Raijū and with the patronage of the royal government of Chūzan, as a companion to the Naminoue Shrine already located on the bluff, overlooking the beach and ocean.

Centuries later, in 1846, the temple was taken over by the doctor and Christian missionary Bernard Jean Bettelheim, who occupied it for seven years, driving off Buddhist worshipers and the temple's rightful occupants. Working as a lay missionary under the auspices of the Loochoo Naval Mission, when Bettelheim's ship, the British Starling, arrived at Naha, the Okinawan port master protested that the missionary should not be allowed to disembark. The Starling's captain wished to go along with this, but Bettelheim made his way ashore anyway, through the use of a clever ruse, and ended up being offered shelter in the Gokoku-ji for that night; he would not leave for seven years. Turning away worshipers and monks alike by jokingly suggesting that they were trying to sneak an illicit peek at his wife, Bettelheim boarded up the temple's sanctuary and threw out much of what he called "the heathen furniture of idolatry". Despite repeated protests that this was a national temple, meant for public use, the missionary considered his hostile takeover a Christian victory over heathens.