Zuiganji

Zuiganji is a Zen temple of the Myoshin-ji branch of the Rinzai school in Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture; its formal name is Matsushima Seiryuzan Zuigan Enpuku Zenji. According to the temple, its predecessor was Enpuku-ji, a Tendai temple said to have been founded in the early 9th century by Jikaku Daishi Ennin. In the mid-13th century, Hojo Tokiyori, regent of the Kamakura shogunate, invited the Zen master Hosshin Shosai as founding abbot and made it the Rinzai temple Enpuku-ji, and in the Muromachi period it came to be ranked among the Ten Temples of the Kanto. It then gradually declined through the Warring States period.

The temple was restored to its present form by Date Masamune, who made Sendai his base after the Battle of Sekigahara. According to the temple, Masamune laid out the site himself, sought timber from Kumano in Kii Province, and brought in 130 master craftsmen from the Kinai region. The name Zuiganji first appears in the inscription on a temple bell cast in 1608, and the following year, 1609, the five-year construction was completed. As the family temple of the Date clan it became the foremost temple in the domain, and after decline in the Meiji era it completed the ten-year Heisei Great Restoration in 2018.

The National Treasure Main Hall (former Hojo) dates from 1609; the national cultural properties database dates it to the Momoyama period and describes it as 13 bays wide, single-story, with a hip-and-gable roof covered in tiles. According to the temple, it is 38 meters wide, 24.2 meters deep and 17.3 meters high at the ridge. Ten rooms, including the Butsuma (Buddha room), the Bunno Room, the Jodan Room and the Jojodan Room, are arranged around the central Shicchu, also called the Peacock Room, and the themes of the sliding-door paintings and the style of the ceilings change from room to room. The wall paintings were made from 1620 to 1622, and every room except the Sumie Room now holds finely made reproductions produced since 1985.

At the southwest corner of the main hall is the Onari Genkan, an entrance reserved for the emperor, the imperial family and the lord of the domain. Because of its bent shape it is also called the otsu-shaped entrance, and while most of its woodwork is left plain, key carvings are covered with gold leaf. The Kuri was the temple's kitchen. According to the temple, it is 13.8 meters wide and 23.6 meters deep, with a gable roof covered in tiles and a hip-and-gable smoke vent on top. Look for the beams and struts built up on the upper front and the bold arabesque carvings on the gable. The main hall was designated a National Treasure in 1953, and the Kuri and the corridors in 1959.

Along the right side of the approach runs a group of caves whose walls are carved with memorial towers and five-tiered stupas, recalling that Matsushima was a sacred site known as the Koya of Oshu. To the left of the reception office is Hosshin-kutsu, the cave where Hosshin and Hojo Tokiyori are said to have met. In front of the main hall, the Garyubai are red and white plum trees said to have been planted by Masamune himself to celebrate the raising of the ridgepole; they usually bloom from late March to early April. The main hall's Sumie Room cannot currently be seen because of a five-year project, begun in May 2026, to conserve its paintings and make reproductions; the restored originals will go to the temple's museum, and reproductions will be fitted in the room.