Buddhist monasteries · The temple and shrine corporations · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Shōfukuji

The temple Eisai built in 1195, the infobox year (the page's text says the work was completed in 1204), on land given by Yoritomo at Hakata.

It stands on the site of the Hyaku-dō, a chapel put up by Chinese expatriates, so it lies in the Chinese quarter (English Wikipedia). The Daruma school (Zen) had been banned in the capital in 1194 at Enryakuji's petition [not yet checked against the source], and Eisai built here, far from the mountain. The plaque with Go-Toba's own writing hung at its gate shows that the cloistered emperor favours it.

A market town called Kannai grows inside its precinct and the Chinzei commissioner's seat is placed there in the page, which is later in our reading. Eisai's Jufukuji at Kamakura (1200, month not known) and Kenninji at Kyoto (1202) come next.

Who holds it

Name
Eisai
Title
Founder: Eisai (Yōsai, 1141-1215)
Since
1195
Born
1141
Family
Born in Bitchū, a son of a priest of the Kibitsu shrine family [not yet checked against the source]; he went twice to Song China (the second time ending in 1191) and brought back the Rinzai (Linji) line [not yet checked against the source]
Confidence
medium

English Wikipedia (Shōfuku-ji, Fukuoka): land of eight chō from Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1195; a plaque in Go-Toba's hand for its main gate; the site of the Hyaku-dō, a chapel built by Chinese living in Hakata. Where Eisai is on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

none in law

What it holds

  • The temple at Hakata
  • A small market-town in its grounds (Kannai) [English Wikipedia; date not given]

Allies and rivals

Patrons: Yoritomo (by land), Go-Toba (by the plaque), and the Song merchants of Hakata. Enemy: Enryakuji.

How things stand that morning

Eisai may be in Kyushu or already on his way to Kamakura at Masako's call; not pinned.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

  1. 1200 (month not known)Eisai founds Jufukuji at Kamakura under Hōjō Masako's patronage (the brief)Depends on: Masako's call; Eisai's journey east Stopped by: Enryakuji's new petition or a death in the Hōjō house

Later, on the likely course

  1. Kennin 2 (1202)Eisai founds Kenninji at KyotoDepends on: Favour of the shogun Yoriie and the court Stopped by: Enryakuji's opposition

Where the sources disagree

  • English Wikipedia gives two years for the finished temple (1195 in the infobox, 1204 in the text); the campaign board and the brief say 1195, which we read as the founding.

Evidence: English Wikipedia (Shōfuku-ji, Fukuoka) and the brief.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

Primary sources for Temple powers (west)

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
  • Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
  • Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
  • Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
  • Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
  • Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
  • The Tale of the Heike, Anonymous; traditionally attributed to Shinano no Zenji Yukinaga, performed and reshaped by blind reciters (early thirteenth century in its first form; the standard Kakuichi text was fixed in 1371). The epic of the Genpei war, in the form the reciters gave it over the century after 1200. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
  2. OMNIA board notes and places for area kjw (starting lead only, checked against the sources)
  3. Shōfuku-ji (Fukuoka), English Wikipedia

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.