Shōjōkō-ji
Buddhist temple in Japan, the head temple of the Ji-shū sect
Shōjōkō-ji (清浄光寺) is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is the headquarters of the Ji-shu branch of Pure Land Buddhism, founded in the Kamakura period by Ippen. The formal name of the temple is Tōtaku-san Muryōkō-in Shōjōkō-ji (藤沢山 無量光院 清浄光寺), and its honzon is a statue of Amida Nyorai. As the head priest of the temple, Tōtaku Shōnin, also bears the inherited title Yugyō Shōnin (遊行上人), the temple has become familiarly known as Yugyō-ji (遊行寺) since the Edo period. The temple is also sometimes referred to as Fujisawa-dōjō.
History
The temple was founded in 1325 by the local Matano clan, whose estates extended from present-day Nishimatano, Fujisawa to Matano-chō and Higashimatano-chō in Totsuka-ku, Yokohama and the 4th head of the sect, Dōnkai. However, it was located on the site of a much older temple called Gokuraku-ji, were Ippen had stayed while preaching in Kamakura and making a pilgrimage to Enoshima. The temple was supported by the kanrei Ashikaga Mochiuji in 1435. The temple was destroyed in 1513 in a battle between Hōjō Soun, Miura Dosun, and Ōta Sukeyasu. Shōjōkō-ji had bad relations especially with the Later Hōjō clan after the castellan of Tamanawa Castle had seized temple properties.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shōjōkō-ji” is buddhist temple in Japan, the head temple of the Ji-shū sect. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shōjōkō-ji, Buddhist and temple, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “buddhist temple in Japan, the head temple of the Ji-shū sect” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11561284. VIAF identifies the subject as 152464767. The Library of Congress control number is n82058872. Authority coordinates are 35.349, 139.489. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1325, 1435 and 1513.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shōjōkō-ji” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.