千年寺

Overview

Sennenji is an Obaku-school Zen Buddhist temple in Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture, known by the mountain name Chokeizan. It is remembered above all as the temple where Mori Nagatsugu, the second lord of the Tsuyama domain, had his own memorial tomb built while he was still alive.

Highlights

• ●An Obaku-school temple, known by the mountain name Chokeizan, founded under Mori Nagatsugu, second lord of Tsuyama domain
• ●The gyakushuto, Nagatsugu's own memorial tower built during his lifetime
• ●A rare living link to the Obaku Zen lineage founded in Japan by the Chinese master Yinyuan
• ●A faith carried on by the Seki family in Niimi even after the Mori clan's departure from Tsuyama

History

The Obaku school was founded in Japan by the Chinese Zen master Yinyuan (Ingen), who was invited from China at the initiative of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Mori Nagatsugu is said to have been a deeply devoted follower of this school. Nagatsugu had Sennenji built at Shimotamura and another Obaku temple, Honkoji, at Nishi-ichinomiya within Tsuyama domain, placing his own "gyakushuto"—a memorial tower built during one's lifetime—at Sennenji. However, after the Mori family was stripped of its domain and left Tsuyama in the tenth year of the Genroku era, devotion to the Obaku school in Tsuyama is thought to have gradually declined. The Seki family, into which Nagatsugu had originally been born and which later became lords of the Niimi domain in Bicchu, continued to uphold the Obaku school as their family faith, designating Zuishoji in Edo and Sairaiji in Niimi as their family temples.

Map

35.0735, 133.9669 · Wikidata

Suggested itinerary

1. 1Head from central Tsuyama to Sennenji in Shimotamura and take in the distinctive atmosphere of its Obaku-style grounds
2. 2Visit Mori Nagatsugu's gyakushuto and reflect on the lord's deep devotion to the Obaku school
3. 3Walk the temple grounds at a relaxed pace, tracing the ties between the Tsuyama domain and the Obaku school
4. 4If time allows, combine the visit with other historic sites around Tsuyama for a fuller history walk

Did you know?

💡 The presence of Mori Nagatsugu's gyakushuto at Sennenji—a tomb a feudal lord had built for himself during his own lifetime—speaks to how deeply he had committed himself to the Obaku school. The fact that the Seki family, into which he was born, kept the Obaku faith alive in Niimi even after the Mori clan left Tsuyama shows how a single school of Buddhism could carry across a family line beyond one domain.

Nearby spots