Sengakuji and Zen in Japanese Culture (18 November)

In Japan, temples have played a crucial role in people’s lives for a long time. Having a close linkage with urban areas, temples may be compared to ‘windows’ navigating us through the historical and cultural layers of an urban city. Temples reveal the story of urban societies which have been handed down from the past to the present.

Sengakuji was founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogunate of the Edo period, in 1612, and has functioned as a scholarship and cultural platform of Zen Buddhism. It was acknowledged as one of the Edo’s three main gakuryō (Buddhist Colleges) which belongs to the ‘Sōtō-shū sect’ alongside Kichijōji Sendanrin in Komagome and Seishōji Shishikutsu in Shiba-Atago.

Set in Sengakuji, this program will explore the development of Japanese culture and Zen. The program consists of two sections, a guided tour and a lecture, both focusing on the history of gakuryō, Japanese literature and fine arts of Zen, and the important roles that Sengakuji and other Zen temples have played in the cultural history of Japan.

Timetable (18 November)

10:00-11:30 ・Guided Tour “Explore the Precincts of Sengakuji: Its History and Culture”
Lecturer: Kenmyou Muta (Priest/Department Director)/Language: Japanese only

13:00-14:30 Lecture “Scholarship and Culture of Zen Temples”
Lecturer: Takashi Horikawa (Professor at the Institute of Oriental Classics [Shido Bunko], Keio University), Kenmyou Muta

* The lecture will be held in Japanese. However, we will provide English language support for non-Japanese speakers.

​More details here. Program is free (prior registration required).