Everything about T Kei-ji totally explained
The, also known as or ), is a Buddhist temple in the city of
Kamakura in
Kanagawa Prefecture,
Japan. It is part of the
Rinzai school of
Zen's
Engaku-ji branch, and was opened by
Hōjō Sadatoki in 1285. It is best known as an historic refuge for women who were abused by their husbands.
History
The temple was founded in the 8th year of
Koan,
1285 by nun Kakusan-ni, wife of
Hōjō Tokimune (1251-1284) after her husband's death. Because it was then customary for a wife to become a nun after her husband death, she decided to open the temple and dedicate it to the memory of her husband. She also made it a refuge for battered wives.
In an age when men could easily divorce their wives but wives had great difficultly divorcing their husbands, the Tōkei-ji allowed women to become officially divorced after staying there for three years. Temple records show that, during the
Tokugawa period alone, an estimated 2000 women sought shelter here. The temple lost its right to concede divorce in 1873, when a new law was approved and the Court of Justice started to handle the cases.
The temple remained a nunnery for over 600 years and men couldn't enter it until 1902, when a man took the post of head chief and Tōkei-ji came under the supervision of
Engaku-ji. Before then, the chief nun was always an important figure, and once it even was a daughter of emperor
Go-Daigo. Tenshū-ni, the daughter and only survivor of the family of
Toyotomi Hideyori, son of
Hideyoshi, entered Tōkei-ji following the
Siege of Osaka. Such was the nunnery prestige that its couriers didn't need to prostrate themselves when they met a
Daimyo's procession.
The two main buildings of the complex are the Main Hall and the Suigetsudō Hall, but this last isn't open to visitors.
Behind the temple there's a graveyard where many celebrities are buried, among them two men also famous among European
Zen and
haiku aficionados,
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki and
Reginald Horace Blyth.
For additional information: An academic treatise has been published recently, titled
Zen Sanctuary of Purple Robes: Japan's Tokeiji Convent Since 1285, by Sachiko Kaneko Morrell and Robert E. Morrell (State University of New York Press, 2006).
Further Information
Get more info on 'T Kei-ji'.
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