Before Sōjiji was founded, Noto already had places of prayer and Buddhist practice.

In Part 1, we introduced Eiheiji and Sōjiji, the two head temples of the Sōtō school. This time, we look at how Sōjiji began in Noto.

The exhibition at Zen no Sato in Monzen, Oku-Noto, introduces Keizan Jōkin’s founding of Sōjiji alongside traditions about messages received in dreams.

Before Sōjiji: Morookadera

At the place that would become today’s Sōjiji Soin, there was already a temple called Morookadera.

The exhibition describes it as a temple of esoteric Buddhism traditionally said to have been founded by Gyōki.

Sōjiji did not suddenly appear on an empty site. It inherited a place where people had already prayed and practised Buddhism.

In 1321, Keizan received the temple and established Sōjiji as a place of Zen practice. Sōjiji’s historical collection preserves the deed recording Jōken’s donation of Morookadera’s temple lands and grounds to Keizan. Sōjiji Digital Archive

Messages in Two Dreams

An unusual story has been handed down about this transfer.

According to the exhibition, Kannon appeared in a dream to Jōken, the priest of Morookadera, and told him to entrust the temple to an eminent monk named Keizan.

Keizan, too, is said to have received a message in a dream connected with taking over the temple.

The two dreams bring together the person passing on the temple and the person receiving it.

This is one of the stories through which the exhibition presents Sōjiji’s beginnings.

These dream accounts are traditions associated with the founding. Distinguished from the documentary record of the donation, they offer a way to understand how Sōjiji’s origins have been remembered and retold.

Noto’s Religious Foundations

The exhibition also introduces Noto’s long history as a place of religious practice.

Temples among the mountains and place names recalling mountain ascetic traditions testify to a variety of Buddhist activities that preceded Sōjiji.

The history of Buddhism in Noto did not begin with the Sōtō school alone.

The Zen teachings brought by Keizan took their place alongside layers of faith already established in the region.

From Morookadera to Sōjiji.

This was more than a change of name. It marked the beginning of an inherited place of prayer becoming a new centre for sharing Sōtō Zen.