Hiraizumi the Buddhist Pure Land

Hiraizumi - Temples, Gardens and Archaeological Sites Representing the Buddhist Pure Land comprises five sites, including the sacred Mount Kinkeisan. It features vestiges of government offices dating from the 11th and 12th centuries when Hiraizumi was the administrative centre of the northern realm of Japan and rivalled Kyoto. The realm was based on the cosmology of Pure Land Buddhism, which spread to Japan in the 8th century. It represented the pure land of Buddha that people aspire to after death, as well as peace of mind in this life. In combination with indigenous Japanese nature worship and Shintoism, Pure Land Buddhism developed a concept of planning and garden design that was unique to Japan.

Continent: Asia

Country: Japan

Category: Caltural

Criterion: (II)(VI)

Date of Inscription: 2011

The four Pure Land gardens of Hiraizumi

The four Pure Land gardens of Hiraizumi, three focused on the sacred mountain Mount Kinkeisan, exemplify a fusion between the ideals of Pure Land Buddhism and indigenous Japanese concepts relating to the relationship between gardens, water and the surrounding landscape. Two gardens are reconstructed, with many details recovered from excavations, and two remain buried.

The short-lived city of Hiraizumi was the political and administrative centre of the northern realm of Japan in the 11th and 12th century and rivalled Kyoto, politically and commercially. The four gardens were built by the Ôshû Fujiwara family, the northern branch of the ruling clan, as symbolic manifestations of the Buddhist Pure Land on this earth, a vision of paradise translated into reality through the careful disposition of temples in relation to ponds, trees and the peaks of Mount Kinkeisan. The heavily gilded temple of Chûson-ji - the only one remaining from the 12th century -, reflects the great wealth of the ruling clan.

Hiraizumi Temples Garden

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Wealth and power of Hiraizumi

Much of the area was destroyed in 1189 when the city lost its political and administrative status. Such was the spectacular rise and conspicuous wealth of Hiraizumi and its equally rapid and dramatic fall, that it became the source of inspiration for many poets. In 1689, Matsuo Basho, the Haiku poet, wrote: 'Three generations of glory vanished in the space of a dream...'

The four temple complexes of this once great centre with their Pure Land gardens, a notable surviving 12th century temple, and their relationship with the sacred Mount Kinkeisan are an exceptional group that reflect the wealth and power of Hiraizumi, and a unique concept of planning and garden design that influenced gardens and temples in other cities in Japan.

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