The Buddhist monarch: Go-Shirakawa and the rebuilding of Tōdai-ji

Abstract

In the last month of the fourth year of Jisho (1180)， 1 the great Nara temple Todai-ji 東大寺 was set aflame by the armies of the Taira. Destroyed or severely damaged were the major buildings of the temple, including the Daibutsuden, and the eighth-century image of Roshana Buddha within. The project to reconstruct Todaiji, begun the next year, was primarily the work of two individuals, the retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa 後白河(1127-1192, r . 1155-1158) and a heretofore little-known Buddhist monk named ChQgen 重源 (1121-1206).2 With Go-Shirakawa’s encouragement, Chogen sought financing for the project through a nationwide kanjin 勧進 campaign, which sought to raise voluntary contributions from the public. Complex and costly, the reconstruction of Todai-ji took many years to accomplish; but the first step, the recasting of the image’s head, was finished in 1185, shortly before the victory of the Minamoto over the Taira in the Genpei War. The earliest stage of the project, in short, was completed while the country was still in the throes of civil conflict and in dire economic straits. Moreover, though Nara’s second great temple, Kofuku-ji, had been destroyed at the same time, it never became the object of a nationwide restoration effort. 1 According to the current Western calendar, the corresponding date actually falls in Jan­ uary 1181, since a year in the old Japanese lunar calendar system began about a month later than in our solar calendar system. Japanese and Western years are treated here as if they cor­ responded exactly. 2 An account ofTodai-ji's reconstruction and Chogen*s role can be found in M in o 1986.