Five ryō each. Every year, some 250 monks came to Sōjiji in Noto from across Japan. They came for the right to say, for the rest of their lives, “I served as abbot of Sōjiji.” To put it bluntly in modern terms, Sōjiji had put the position of abbot up for sale. Fumio Tamamuro on Sōjiji in the late Edo period · Sōjiji’s register of abbots
This was in the closing years of the Edo period. Monks who had trained in temples across the country came to the head temple for a ceremony called zuise. Each entered the register of abbots, a practice known as serving as “abbot for a night.” The monk returned home qualified to serve as an oshō, a senior priest. Sōjiji received about 1,250 ryō a year. And each time a monk went home, one more temple could say, “Our priest once served as abbot of Sōjiji in Noto.” Masayoshi Ozaki and Tatsuya Nagami on the zuise registers · Fumio Tamamuro on Sōjiji in the late Edo period
How could one temple welcome as many as 250 abbots a year? The story begins some five centuries earlier.
After forty-two years in office, an abbot asked his successors to take turns
Gasan Jōseki, whom we met in Part 3, served as Sōjiji’s second abbot for about forty-two years. He trained many disciples. In 1364, Gasan laid down how they would succeed him. They would take turns as abbot, following the order in which they had received his teachings. The arrangement was called rinjūsei, a rotating abbacy. Part 3, on Yōkōji and Sōjiji (in Japanese) · Sōjiji’s illustrated history
A disciple might leave to take charge of a temple far away and still have a turn at running the head temple back in Noto. The temple that sent him shared both the honour and the burden. Gasan’s choice of how to appoint a successor gave his disciples a way to care for Sōjiji together, even after they had settled across Japan. Sōjiji’s illustrated history
Over the centuries, the arrangement changed. By the late Edo period, five priests were chosen each year from prominent branch temples around the country. Each took charge of one of five temples within Sōjiji’s grounds, and the five took turns running the head temple. Other monks came to qualify as oshō. They too entered Sōjiji’s register of abbots after completing zuise. Fumio Tamamuro on Sōjiji in the late Edo period · Sōjiji’s register of abbots
Five priests could thus share the work of running the temple while hundreds of monks each year received the honour of having served as its abbot. By 1870, when the rotating abbacy ended, the register had reached its 49,766th abbot. Sōjiji’s register of abbots
Noto’s platform was centuries ahead of its time
A monk paid his five ryō, spent his night and left Noto. Sōjiji’s name stayed with him for life. For the disciples he taught back home, Noto was the place where their own teacher had become abbot of the head temple. If they wanted to know what it meant to join that line of abbots, they had someone close at hand to ask.
In today’s terms, Sōjiji served as a platform connecting monks and temples across Japan. Each monk who made the journey gave another temple a personal connection to Sōjiji. As that circle widened, recognition from Sōjiji carried more weight, giving the next monk a reason to set out for Noto. The monks themselves raised the standing of the head temple, and its growing standing drew more monks to Noto. That cycle was the institutional innovation the rotating abbacy made possible.
A town that worked all year to welcome an abbot for a night
This platform had a physical address. Wherever new temples were founded, monks attending zuise at Sōjiji had to pass through the same temple gate in Noto. Some local abbots made the journey with lay members of their temples. Dentōin on the journey to Sōjiji
A household count from 1705 gives us a glimpse of the people who welcomed them. Of the 46 households outside the gate, 28 were artisans, 12 were merchants and six provided labour. More than half made their living by a craft. There were carpenters, roof tilers, plasterers and tatami makers. In the halls that received visitors from across Japan, someone had laid the roof tiles overhead and someone would come to replace the mats underfoot. The history of Sōjiji’s temple town
The head temple received a monk’s five ryō once. The connection he took home with him could last another generation. Over five centuries, the order in which Gasan asked his disciples to take their turns had become a reason for monks from distant provinces to mark a milestone in their lives by travelling to Noto. Outside the gate grew a town whose people worked all year to make that one night possible.