Yutenji Temple

A Nembutsu Hall Built on a Dying Wish

Yutenji Temple (祐天寺, Yūtenji) is a Jodo-shu Buddhist temple in Nakameguro, Meguro City, Tokyo, founded in 1718 by the priest Yukai in honour of his teacher Yuten Shonin; seven of its buildings, including the main hall, the shoin and the Jizo Hall, are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. Its mountain name is Myokenzan. The grounds, which open onto Komazawa-dori, are among the largest of any temple in Meguro, and both the Tokyu Toyoko Line station and the surrounding district, named in 1968, take their name from it.

Yuten Shonin was born in 1637 in Yotsukura, in present-day Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and trained at Zojoji in Shiba. At fifty he withdrew to a hermitage at Ushijima on the east bank of the Sumida River, where he chanted the nembutsu and wrote out the six characters of Namu Amida Butsu for anyone who asked. Word of those calligraphic invocations reached Keishoin, mother of the fifth shogun Tsunayoshi, and the shogunal house and daimyo families became his patrons. In 1711 the sixth shogun Ienobu made him the 36th abbot of Zojoji. He died in the seventh month of 1718, aged eighty-two.

His last request was for a hall devoted to the nembutsu. The shogunate had banned the founding of new temples, so Yukai acquired a small existing chapel in Meguro called Zenkyuin and attached Yuten's name to it; the temple's own history credits the eighth shogun Yoshimune with allowing the exception. The name Yutenji was formally granted in 1722 at the request of Gekkoin, Ienobu's consort. Some sources give 1723, but the temple chronology and Meguro City both give 1722.

Shogunal Gifts and a Night of Fire

Through the Edo period Yutenji Temple grew on gifts from women of the Tokugawa household. Takehime, adopted daughter of Tsunayoshi, paid for the Amida Hall in 1724 and the Nio Gate in 1735. Ten'eiin, Ienobu's widow, gave the bell tower and its bronze bell in 1729 as a memorial for her husband. The chronology records the shoguns Yoshimune, Ieshige and Ieharu stopping here again and again on hawking trips, with the priests laying on rest and meals.

On the night of 12 September 1894 a fire broke out near the priests' quarters and consumed the main hall, three study halls and the treasury. The seated statue of Yuten Shonin and its shrine were carried out, but much of the temple's collection was lost.

Rather than build anew, the temple moved the Tokugawa memorial hall that stood elsewhere in the grounds to serve as the core of a new main hall, put up a worship hall in front of it, and later joined the two. The shoin, too, began life as the rebuilt priests' quarters. That is why the present main hall and shoin read as Edo and Meiji-Taisho construction stitched together.

The damage report filed after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake lists a collapsed water pavilion at the Jizo Hall, roof tiles fallen from the front gate, and every building damaged and leaning to some degree. According to the temple, seismic isolation work was carried out between 2007 and 2017.

Reading the Grounds

Six buildings were registered on 24 December 2013: the main hall, the shoin, the Jizo Hall, the Jizo Hall gate, the front gate and the water pavilion, all under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape. The bell tower followed on 10 May 2018 under the criterion of serving as a model of design. They span a long stretch of time, from the bell tower of 1729 to the shoin of 1895.

Coming in from Komazawa-dori, you pass first through the front gate on the north edge of the grounds. Walking south along the approach, the Jizo Hall gate faces west on your left, with the Jizo Hall behind it. Ahead stands the Nio Gate, a Meguro City Designated Tangible Cultural Property, and beyond it the water pavilion and then the main hall. The bell tower stands northwest of the main hall; the shoin lies to its west, entrance facing north.

The grounds also hold the Amida Hall, likewise designated by Meguro City, and the grave of Yuten Shonin in the cemetery, a Tokyo Metropolitan Historic Site. The Nio Gate is an eight-legged gate three bays wide, and like the Amida Hall it has kept its mid-Edo form without major rebuilding.

The Firefighters' Temple

Walk the grounds of Yutenji Temple with an eye for detail and Edo's town firefighters, the machi-bikeshi, keep turning up. The coffered ceiling of the Jizo Hall's outer sanctuary is painted with the matoi standards of individual brigades, and seven matoi are carved in relief on the ceiling boards of the Jizo Hall gate. A stone basin placed before the Jizo Hall in 1789 was given by the young steeplejacks of the E brigade, who later rebuilt it. In the main hall hangs a plaque inset with forty carved matoi, presented by the Tokyo city fire brigades in 1935.

The temple chronology records which brigade gave what and when, so the carvings on the buildings can be matched to the donors who paid for them.

Visiting and Getting There

The nearest station to Yutenji Temple is Yutenji on the Tokyu Toyoko Line. The temple puts the walk at 8 minutes and Meguro City at 9; leave by the east exit and head for Komazawa-dori. By bus, routes Shibu 71 (Shibuya Station east exit to Senzoku Station), Ebi 32 (Ebisu Station to Yoga Station) and Me 06 (Meguro Station to Sangenjaya Station) all stop at Yutenji, about 4 minutes on foot from the temple.

The postal address is 5-24-53 Nakameguro, Meguro City. The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists each registered building under the land-lot number 5-1067-1 Nakameguro, which is the same site.

According to the temple, the grounds are open 24 hours, and the temple office is staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Parking inside the grounds is available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for worshippers and those attending services only. Cemetery hours run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. between April and September and from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. between October and March; when the gates are shut, visitors are asked to use the wicket doors.

Morning nembutsu starts at 6 a.m. every day, with a talk on the second Sunday of each month and a nembutsu gathering on the fourth Sunday, all open to anyone. Most of the seven registered buildings are seen from outside, and whether you can go inside differs from building to building; each building's page covers its own conditions. During services, keep cameras and voices down near the halls.