Basic Research on Edo Period Temples of the Shinshu Sect and the Related Restrictive Rules of the Honmatsu Class System.

1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 08650747
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Architectural history/design
• Research Institution: Kyoto Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: HYUGA Susumu Kyoto Institute of Technology, Fac.Engineering and Design Professor, 工芸学部, 教授 (60111994)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MATSUDA Kousuke Kyoto Institute of Technology, Fac.Engineering and Design Research-Assistant, 工芸学部, 助手 (20293988)
• Project Period (FY): 1996 – 1998
• Keywords: Edo Period / Jodo-Shinshu sect / Honmatsu class system / Hondo

Research Abstract

Originally, the Shinshu hondo architecture was simple. But in the mid-Edo Period, the hondo of head temples became gorgeous. These changes were controlled by the shogunate government and by the administration of the head temple. It was in 1668 that the Tokugawa government imposed certain rules restricting the form of temples. One of the most important restrictions was related to the fixing of a maximum of bays as six to the depth of hondo. During the 17th to the 18th centuries, the head temple also imposed many restrictions to the hondo design of lower-ranking temples.
In the 18th century, the hondo from the head temples started to possess the marubashira and the ushirodo plan became generally accepted. The style of these temples started then to be more definite and smaller temples wished to posses a little from their magnificence themselves. This could only be done through a license system, where the lower-ranking temples had to pay a reigin fee to the head temples to get permission to build in their fashion. At this time, some farmers started to get economically powerful and became parishioners of lower-ranking temples, influencing their running of affairs. In order to maintain the honma tsu class system under control in the Shinshu order, head temples had to tighten their restrictions on these lower-ranking temples. As the Tokugawa shogunate demanded the nengu payments, it wanted to tighten control on this system of reigin payments, so that those parishioners involved could still afford to pay the nengu.
In these above cited conditions, the architecture of the hondo of lower-ranking Shinshu temples evolved assnming a less domestic-like appearence to a more 'Buddhist temple-like' style.