Database: Tenryu-ji Temple and the Rinzai School

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Tenryū-ji temple was established in 1339 by Ashikaga Takauji, founder of the Ashikaga shogunate and protector of the Northern Court. Tenryū-ji benefited, from its foundation, from part of the trade income between the archipelago and China of the Yuan, the Mongol dynasty. Merchant ships were sent to China from 1342, the profits of which were used for the construction and expansion of the temple. This decision to reconnect with China after the Mongol wars of the end of the 13th century was taken by the shōgun on the advice of the Zen monk Musō Soseki, one of the great intellectual figures of his time.

Established in the Saga district on the western outskirts of the capital Kyoto, Tenryū-ji quickly became one of the great Zen monasteries of the Rinzai sect. In fact, it was one of the five "mountains," the five most powerful temples of the sect. Tenryū-ji, which burned many times throughout its history, became a center of intellectual and artistic life of the "five mountains culture." Founded by Musō Soseki, its Zen Garden was considered one of the finest examples of the art. Reworked and modified over time, it remains a beautiful example of five mountains culture. Zen, in its Rinzai version, was imported from China at the end of the 12th century by the monk Eisai. Eisai introduced the new doctrine with support from the leaders of the Kamakura shogunate regime who favored the arrival of Chinese Zen masters. Rinzai advocates for seated meditation in the lotus position using koan, paradoxical questions that allow access to Enlightenment (satori). This practice was favored by warriors who allowed the Rinzai school to prosper. Between the 14th and 16th centuries the great Zen masters understood how to become trusted advisors to the main shōguns of the Ashikaga dynasty, much like how the Jesuits knew how to advise certain Western princes.