Zuiganji -
A Zen View

Matsushima, close to the northern city of Sendai, is one of Japan's Three Famous Views. This trio of spectacular coastal sights also includes Ama no Hashidate on the Japan Sea Coast in Kyoto Prefecture and Itsukushima Island in Hiroshima Bay. Matsushima means "Pine Islands," and refers to the hundreds of small islands that lie before the coast. The working of wind and waves has kneaded them into strange shapes, on which viewers can freely exercise their imagination. On all islands pine trees cling to the scarce soil in grotesque poses. Unfortunately, mass tourism and commercialism have spoiled the bay. The large temple compound of Zuiganji is the only quiet place in Matsushima.

Zuiganji was founded three times. In 828, Ennin reputedly came here and he is regarded as the original founder - the temple was called after the location, Matsushimadera. Little is known about this old foundation. The second founding occurred in the thirteenth century, when the Zen monk Hosshin changed the old Tendai temple into a Zen establishment called Enpukuji. Hosshin, who had studied in China and was one of Japan's early Zen masters, believed that the panorama of the island-studded bay would be conducive to meditation. All that is left from Hosshin's time are the meditation caves hewn out in the rock along the avenue leading to the temple. Hosshin himself used a large cave close to the entrance (now fenced-off).

The present buildings date from the third rebuilding in 1609, when warlord Date Masamune turned the temple into his family chapel. He had the temple rebuilt in the gorgeous Momoyama Shoin style of his day. Date Masamune (1567-1636) was the founder of the Sendai fief. Because he had lost the sight in one eye as a child, he was known by the nickname Dokuganryu, "One-eyed Dragon." A formidable warrior, Masamune brought a large part of northern Japan under his sway. In 1600, at the battle of Sekigahara, he fought on the side of the victorious Tokugawa and was therefore rewarded with the large fief of Sendai in the new Shogunate. He was a strict ruler, but also interested in the culture of Kyoto, which he brought to Zuiganji.

I come here on an afternoon in late autumn, after a visit to the Shiogama Shrine in Sendai's harbor town of the same name and a one hour boat ride thorough the maze of islands in the bay. The worst of the tourist season is over and I saunter along the shore to see the symbol of Matsushima, the small Godaido Hall, built on an islet connected to the land by two vermilion bridges. A dragon-shaped sightseeing boat docks at the quay like a mockery of nature's beauty.

A Fortified Temple

A Feudal Baron's Temple
The low sun shines into the lane leading along the meditation caves, lighting up memorial stones and Buddha statues. When after this atmospheric introduction I step into the temple's courtyard, I sense something incongruous: the temple looks like a fortified mansion. The buildings stand at the dead-end of a glen and are enclosed by high walls. When I walk along the broad verandah that runs around the Main Hall, the floorboards squeak under my feet: it is a so-called "singing nightingale floor," constructed to give away intruders. In the room where Date Masamune would sit when visiting his temple, a screen behind the seat hides a closet for his bodyguards. It reminds me of Nijo Castle in Kyoto.

Despite all this, the temple is beautiful. The woodwork, from the transoms to the ceilings, has been artfully carved and painted. The sliding screens separating the various rooms of the Main Hall carry magnificent paintings by masters of the Kano School. It is an orgy of flowers on gold. In the Falcon Room, the power of Date Masamune is symbolized by a martial falcon ogling smaller animals. Impressive, too, is the Peacock Room, in which these proud birds expose their feathers under large pine trees.

These embellishments were not meant for the monks: the main hall served as a second palace for Date Masamune, who even had his private gateway. Here the Abbot received him in state, here he could conduct his affairs in quiet. The Seiryoden, the temple museum, contains a memento of one of these affairs. In 1613, Masamune sent one of his samurai, Hasekura Tsunenaga, on an embassy to Mexico and Spain, with the intention to start trade relations. Via Mexico, Hasekura traveled to Europe - where he also visited the Pope in Rome and became a Christian - and it took him full seven years before he could return to Japan. There the situation had changed. The Shogunate had expelled all foreigners and closed the country to foreign trade. The long trip had been fruitless and all that remains of it is a pair of Venetian glass candlesticks, a gift from the Pope.

Oshima island, the location of meditation caves

A View from the Zen Caves
When I leave the temple, mist rises from the ground and hangs low between the lofty cedars. The cold makes me shiver. I turn my back on the power, the golden embellishments, and the mementos of worldly struggle to face the meditation caves again, cut out deep in the cliff. A cave is all that is necessary for Zen, and as a bonus nature provides the view of the island-dotted bay, of rocks and pines molded in fantastic shapes, so beautiful that it rendered even Basho (who visited Matsushima in 1689) speechless - the tradition tells that the great poet was so paralyzed by the scenic grandeur that he could not capture it in a haiku. But this is a place of Zen and in the poet's "no-words" all words are contained. Emptiness, feeling no attachment, is the true attitude of the Zen adept and, in fact, all Buddhists. It is time to close my mouth and leave Matsushima alone.