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Torin-ji
What Does the Southern Temple Speak in Silence?
Date:01, Apr, 2018
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
About our introductory articles


Visiting temples. Some often make me feel sorry. We can be relaxed by the oldness, history. Some people might say like thus. I don't mean denying them. However, history always includes what we desire to look away. I believe so.

Ishigaki island of Okinawa has a temple "Torin-ji" built in 1614. The sect is Rinzai-shu.



Okinawa used to be an independent kingdom which prospered in trade with the Min Dynasty (China). I guess peace had prevailed on the small kingdom. However, the peace couldn't last so long. In 1609 early spring, the Shimazu family in the Satsuma fief invaded the kingdom. In the April, Okinawa lost, they became under the Satsuma fief.

Okinawa had also belonged to the Min Dynasty at the time, but it was very untimely. The dynasty was very tired for fighting back against an incursion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and so they couldn't support Okinawa.



After the invasion, the Satsuma fief advised Okinawa to build a temple just like all invaders have advised. No reason that a subject country can stand against suggestions by their suzerain, like Japan government cannot structurally object to the American suggestions (Why do we Japanese have to hold the citizen judge system?). Then, the Torin-ji was built in Okinawa.

In other words, the temple stands as a proof of Japan's invasion. Like the United Kingdom, some would be deeply proud of what their forefathers had plundered from the colonies. I don't deny the way of national identity. I cannot be so, however. I can't help feeling sorry.

Japan officially forsook Okinawa in the World War 2. Today Japan still keeps looking away from Okinawa, Okinawa is almost being an offering to America. Japanese mass-media each and every one of them ignored the Sanchi oil tanker collision which went on near Okinawa in 2018 January. Thinking about the history, I can do nothing but hang my head and feel sorry.







 

Chuson-ji
Prayer for Peace in Iwate

Koryu-ji
Shows the Boshin War in Silence