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岐阜県下呂市、玉龍寺。1300年の歴史を未来へつなぎたい。

玉龍寺

支援総額

3,783,000円

目標金額 7,000,000円

支援者: 85人

募集終了日: 2022年12月26日

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岐阜県下呂市、玉龍寺。1300年の歴史を未来へつなぎたい。

玉龍寺

2022年12月15日 14:51

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Gyokuryu-ji Temple, Gero City, Gifu Prefecture

1300 years of history to be passed on to the future

Gyokuryu-ji Temple, an ancient Zen temple in Gero City, Gifu Prefecture, was founded approximately 1,300 years ago by Gyoki in the Nara period (710-794). During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the temple attracted Buddhist statues of famous priests and high priests from all over Japan. In recent years, the temple has become popular among many people as a "Momiji-dera'' temple with beautiful autumn leaves and as a power spot where dragons dwell.

In the Hida area of Gifu Prefecture is a sacred site called the Japanese navel. The Gyokuryu-ji Temple protects the sacred mountain on the south side of the site, where gods and Buddha live together.

At Gyokuryu-ji, renovation projects are underway for the temple's gate, bell tower, and chinju-do hall in connection to the generational change of the temple's chief priest in 2020.

We are challenging crowdfunding in the hope that more and more people will connect with Gyokuryuji Temple and that we can create an opportunity for them to be blessed with luck by the gods and Buddha and enrich their lives. We would appreciate your warm support.

Introduction to the Gyokuryu-ji Temple

Gyokuryū-Ji is an old Zen temple in Gero City, Gifu Prefecture. It was founded by the monk Gyoki during the Nara period, about 1,300 years ago. Gyoki, who was on a pilgrimage around the country, visited this area and enshrined the Yakushi Nyorai (Medicine Buddha) here, as he felt it was a sacred place. It has been worshipped as a sacred place with great spiritual significance.

In the Kamakura period (1185–1333), among other works, a statue of the Kannon (Goddess of Mercy) by Jikaku Daishi was brought to the temple from Kamakura, and a statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha by Eshin Sōzu was brought from Mount Hiei in Kyoto. Both statues, created by famous Japanese high priests, are more than 1,000 years old.

In the past, when the area was hit by drought, water gushed out as a result of prayers for rain. It has never dried up since then, enriching the area and its people. The water not only increases the yield of crops, is also sweet and rejuvenating when drunk, and is still gushing forth in abundance today.

The temple's buildings went through a long period of decline and reconstruction, and the name changed from Iouzan Tōkō-Ji (医王山東光寺) to Kanpozan Kongō-Ji (観宝山金剛寺). In the Muromachi period (1336–1573), the temple became a Zen temple and was given its temple estate by Kanamori Nagachika (1524–1608), lord of Hida. After his death, it was renamed after him as Yonakazan Gyokuryū-Ji (要仲山玉龍寺). The current temple complex was rebuilt in 1761.

Gyokuryū-Ji Temple is located in Gero City, Gifu Prefecture, on a national road route from the Nagoya direction. A large temple complex was constructed as a sacred mountain for healing various illnesses; in recent years, it has become popular in the neighbourhood as a maple tree temple with beautiful autumn leaves, and dragon lovers from all over the country have begun visiting as a "power spot where dragons dwell," thanks in large part to social networking.

Along with the generational change of chief priests, renovation work has been underway.

At Gyokuryu-ji Temple, important buildings such as the bell tower, the temple gate, and the chinjudo were in need of renovation at the same time and had been left untouched for a long period of time.

In order to welcome a new chief priest, it is common for temples to make some changes to their buildings. But the construction took a lot longer because the Corona disaster drove up the cost of materials, it was hard to get materials like copper sheets in Japan, and heavy rains in 2020 kept National Route 41 closed for a long time. The project kept going even after the abbot changed.

｜Benten-do

Every temple has a Shinto shrine, where a deity is enshrined to protect the temple grounds. About 10 years ago, a typhoon caused a tree to fall on the main shrine of Gyokuryu-ji Temple, the Benten-do hall. At the time, only the sacred body was temporarily kept in the main hall. The most important thing was to fix up the shrine of the god who protects the temple.

｜Belfry

The roof of the bell tower, which was originally made of cypress bark, had a big hole and was leaking several years ago because it was getting old. As a temporary fix for the damage to the frame, blue sheets were used to cover the roof. Because fixing with cypress bark is the most expensive and doesn't last as long, a titanium roof was planned to protect against acid rain and save money.

In addition, the tall pine trees that had served to protect the cypress bark of the gate and bell tower had died due to pine weevil damage, and the distance between the bell tower and the gate had become unnaturally close.

｜Sanmon Gate

The roof of the gate used to be made of cypress bark, just like the roof of the bell tower. However, because of cost concerns, only the roof of the gate was changed to tiles before the roof of the bell tower. The gates (kugurido) on both sides of the temple gate were still hiwadabuki roofed, but they too were in a state of severe deterioration due to age.

It was said that the gate had been slightly tilted since it was knocked down by the strong winds of the Ise Bay Typhoon. The plan for this renovation was to raise the gate and adjust the height of the foundation stone, but due to cost issues, it was decided to leave the foundation stone in place and only install a new paving stone. The deteriorated side gates were also torn down and replaced with new ones.

In 2019, there is also a project to make fusuma-e (paintings of sliding doors) to bring back the sliding doors of the main hall, which were thrown away 50 years ago because they were out of date.

｜About the Fusuma-e Project

The original role of fusuma-e was to make it appropriate for the people who were there and the gods and Buddha who were enshrined. If there are no pictures on the fusuma, which should be in the most important place in a temple, it means that the principal image enshrined there is being treated carelessly.

The sliding screens were made by Mr. Yoshinori Shiroki, a skilled craftsman from Gifu Prefecture who also fixes up yatai (festival floats) for the Takayama Festival.

｜Ryosuke Shiroki (白木良典)

Master joiner Ryosuke Shiroki was born in Tokyo in 1942. After graduating from the wood crafts department of Gifu Hida Jitsugyo High School, he trained as a joiner at Hashimoto Kogyo Corporation (Tokyo), where he also worked on the new section of the Imperial Palace. Mr. Shiroki took over Shiroki Fittings in 1965.

Repair works
National cultural properties: Hotei-dai (Takayama City), Ryujin-dai (Takayama City), Ishibashi-dai (Takayama City), and Toyo-myo-dai (Takayama City).
Gifu Prefecture-designated cultural properties: Hida Soja Kagura-dai (Takayama City), Urashima-dai (Seki City)
Aichi Pref. designated cultural properties: Yueisha (Inuyama City), Kokkorangurankuruma (Inuyama City), Urashima-dai (Inuyama City)
Nagano designated cultural properties: Kami-Oike Maiden (Nagano), many others

Production
Naritasan Shinshoji Temple float (Chiba Prefecture)
Suwa Shrine lantern pole (Nagano Prefecture)
Danjiri (Kuse Town, Okayama Prefecture)
Metropolitan Museum of History float (Tokyo Prefecture)
Jōgan-Ji Temple main hall door (Gifu Prefecture)
Dairin-Ji Temple gate door (Aichi Prefecture)
Fukuda Temple gate door (Aichi Prefecture), and many more

Awards
1966
First Prize (Governor's Prize), Gifu Prefecture Skills Competition, Gifu Prefecture
1998
Gifu Prefecture Excellent Fittings Exhibition, Gifu Prefecture Architects Association, Chairman's Prize
1999
Gifu Prefecture Excellent Fittings Exhibition

Professional history
Director of the Hida Fittings Cooperative Association
Director of the Gifu Fittings Industry Association
President of the Takayama Festival Stall Preservation Technology Cooperative Associatio

Why are we challenging crowdfunding？

Gyokuryu-ji Temple is located in the mountains of Hida, Gifu Prefecture. The younger generation is leaving for the city, so the number of parishioners is getting older and smaller, and many of them live on pensions.

In order to cover the cost of the renovation work, we have had to ask a great deal of our few parishioners. Due to the current state of society, the income has been much lower than expected. To keep the temple running, we have been trying to use money from the previous abbot couple's retirement savings to make up the difference.

We needed to get started on the renovations right away, so we worked with the help of our parishioners. However, it has been hard to cover the costs on our own, so we have decided to use crowdfunding to raise money.

●Primary goal: 7 million yen

●Funds will be used to pay for fixtures and fittings for the entire temple and for the restoration of the Benten-do hall.

Message from the chief priest

My name is Hokaku Sasaki, the chief priest of Gyokuryu-ji Temple. Thank you very much for visiting the introduction page of our temple. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet you

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the death of Unrei, the 12th generation of monks who built the current main building of Gyokuryu-ji, and the ceremony will be held on the same day as the 250th anniversary of Unrei. We hope that we will be able to repay the monk's kindness, even if only a little, by adding the fusuma-e paintings to the main hall that he built.

Since we started getting ready for the crowdfunding campaign, we've met a lot of great people. We are working with Mimir LLC to make a metaverse experience of the main hall, including the paintings on the sliding doors, so that people from other countries who are interested in Japanese culture can experience them through virtual reality.

Through our social media communications, people from all over Japan who love dragons, have ties to Hida, and are devoutly religious have come to pray at the temple, and we are grateful for the precious connections we have with the gods and Buddha.

We are thankful for the precious relationship we have with the gods and Buddha. However, I would like everyone to understand that a small minority of them are being maligned and that most temples and shrines are serious about their activities.

Religious corporations are not businesses that make money, and they do not belong to any one person. We are serious about the happiness of society and people in our own way, and we live each day with the pride of serving the gods and Buddha.

We sincerely hope that you will join us in this connection so that Japan and the world will be at peace and your lives will be enriched.

Please visit Gyokuryuji Temple when you come to Gero.　　　

Blessings on you, Priest-in-Chief

Support Messages

Kana Oiwa

Representative of Mimir LLC

I am very honoured to have been given the opportunity to create this beautiful temple in 3D and show it to the public in the Metaverse. I believe this is the first time that a Japanese Zen temple has been shown to the world in this way. It is a wonderful place to enjoy in the digital world, but it also needs to be preserved in the real world.

We hope that providing people with a digital simulation will make them want to go to real temples and learn more about Zen and its place in Japanese culture.

Hans Karlsson

Co-Founder, CTO, Mimir LLC

We are very honoured to have the opportunity to create this beautiful temple in 3D and show it to the public in the Metaverse. I believe this is the first time that a Japanese Zen temple has been shown to the world in this way. It is a wonderful place to enjoy in the digital world, but it also needs to be preserved in the real world. We hope that giving people a digital simulation will make them want to go to a real temple and learn more about Zen and its place in Japanese culture.

The goal of this VR experience is to encourage people to travel to Japan and experience a real temple to better understand Zen and its place in Japanese culture. Thanks to my friend Ikuhiko Shibata, a ceramic artist, I got to go to Gyokuryu-ji, which was a great chance. Because of this, I was able to get to know the temple's abbot better and was reminded of how good the artisans' work was. Your kindness will make this project a success, and we're very grateful to everyone who makes a contribution.

Akira Enoki

Temple carpenter

Trained for 10 years at Takanari Kenchiku Co.
Worked for 7 years on the ceremonial relocation of the Ise Jingu shrine
Returned to his hometown, Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, and worked for his family's architectural firm, Kenchiku Kyuemon Kenchiku.
Recognized as a master builder in Hida Takayama in 2021.

During the 1300 years that Gyokuryu-ji Temple has been around, many different craftsmen have helped build, restore, and fix it. As one of these craftsmen, I was honoured to be involved in the renovation of the Benten-do and the Belfry and the new run-out on the west side of the main hall, which was a great learning experience for me.

By maintaining such a historic temple through restoration and repair, I sincerely hope that future generations will be able to see the beautiful sliding door paintings, scenery, and other parts of the temple.

Senkyo Yamazaki

Zen Tea and Tea Ceremony Researcher, Flower Arrangement Artist, Visiting Professor at Kibi International University
Head of the Zen Tea and Stewardship Society
Chairman of Waseda University's Zen Tea Society (a student-led group).

Wabicha, a uniquely Japanese way of doing tea ceremony, was born based on Zen and tea.
Wabicha is the legacy of Japan's whole culture. It includes things like incense, flowers, gardens, and sweets.

She teaches Japanese cultural studies at universities, vocational schools, and Senkoseido dojo, where she teaches "wabicha," the origin of theJapanese tea ceremony, and "nurturing flower arranging." She is an instructor of kimono dressing.

"Live in the now."

I am guided daily by the teachings of Zen on the importance of what we should do now. For example, I love the Zen phrase "Sokkon tadaima," which is a very clear, crisp, and pleasant teaching. It stresses the importance of not only cherishing and protecting the good old things but also adopting new ideas and new things. I think this is proof that we are living in the present.

I was surprised to see an old temple, especially one in Japan, follow the latest trends. At the same time, I was reminded of how important it is to keep the Buddha's spirit alive and teach it to the next generation, so that Japan doesn't become a place where people don't know about the Buddha's teachings.

Well, isn't this an interesting experiment?

We would like to support the abbot of this modern mountain temple.

With all my heart

Senkyo Yamazaki
Zen Tea and Horticultural Society of Japan

Thank you for your interest in this project. This page explains how to support our project from computer. Please refer to the following page for details about this crowdfunding challenge.

① Click here for registration

② Registration

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④ Click here and Choose the amount of donation with rewards

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*Please contact us separately if you need your donation confirmation receipt for neither individuals or corporations. (Donation for this project is not tax deductible.)

Thank you so much!