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

Tōdaiji

The temple of the Great Buddha, burned by the Taira on 28 December 1180 and rebuilt by a national subscription led by the old monk Chōgen.

The Great Buddha was given its eyes in 1185; the Great Buddha Hall was dedicated in 1195 with Yoritomo present; the South Great Gate (Nandaimon) is being raised in 1199 and its guardian figures are carved in 1203 by Unkei and Kaikei (later). To pay for the work the court gave Tōdaiji the revenue of Suō, whose forests supplied the beams, and Chōgen's agents run the timber slides and the shipping; he also founded branch halls (betsusho) in the provinces, among them Jōdo-ji in Harima (1194 [not yet checked against the source]).

Who holds it

Name
Chōgen (Shunjōbō), in his late seventies
Title
Chief solicitor of the rebuilding (daikanjin)
Since
1181 (named to head the appeal, recollection)
Born
1121; on the likely course he dies in 1206
Family
A monk of Kōyasan and Pure Land circles; his studio of artists includes Unkei and Kaikei [not yet checked against the source]
Confidence
medium

The brief gives the dates (hall dedicated 1195 with Yoritomo present; Nandaimon raised 1199; guardians carved 1203; Chōgen dies 1206).

Overlord

none in law

What it holds

  • Tōdaiji precinct at Nara
  • The province of Suō (revenue and timber)
  • Branch halls and estates in Harima, Bizen, Iga and elsewhere [not yet checked against the source]
  • A hand in the harbour of Hyōgo [not yet checked against the source]

How it was acquired

By Go-Shirakawa's and Yoritomo's support for the rebuilding.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: none by name; patrons: Kamakura (Yoritomo and now Masako), the cloistered emperor, the Kujō; neighbour of Kōfukuji.

How things stand that morning

Main hall complete; the gate being raised; Chōgen alive and active. The temple's mood is gratitude to Kamakura, which gave rice and men.

Wealth

Suō's revenue and the offerings; no figure used.

Threats

  • The completion of the rebuilding removes the reason for Suō's assignment

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.

  1. 1203Guardian figures for the Nandaimon carved (Unkei and Kaikei)Depends on: Funds and the artists' studio Stopped by: n/a
  2. 1206Chōgen diesDepends on: Age Stopped by: n/a

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The brief for the main dates; the betsusho and the Hyōgo links are recollection.

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. Mikael Adolphson, The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers and Warriors in Premodern Japan (background reading, not re-read in this session)
  4. Jeffrey Mass, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan (background reading, not re-read in this session)

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