The sutra storehouse at Suwasan Kichijo-ji was built over 200 years ago in 1804

Sutra Repository at Suwasan Kichijoji Temple — Sutra Repository at Suwasan Kichijo-ji Temple

Kichijo-ji Temple in komagome, which now has a lonely atmosphere, seems to have had a lively time in the past. In the Edo period, the temple had a dormitory named "Sendanrin" for the study of Buddhism and the promotion of Chinese studies as well as the supply of human resources for these studies, and it was a major research site for Chinese studies along with the Shoheizaka Gakumonjo, an academy of the Shogunate.

As a major research site, the temple grounds boasted magnificent precincts, but most of the buildings were burned down in the Tokyo Air Raid, and only the temple gate and the sutra storehouse remain today.

The structure in the photo is the sutra storehouse. The sutra storehouse is one of the buildings in a Buddhist temple, and as the name suggests, it houses sutras and books related to Buddhism. In layman's terms, it is a library. It was here that the books owned by the temple were stored.

It is the same now as in the past that books are kept in places where research is conducted. Even today, if you go to a university, which is both a research and educational institution, you will find a library with a large collection of books. Compared to university libraries, this sutra library seems a bit small. Even though it was specialized in Buddhism, I wondered if the collection was too small. Or is it possible to complete the collection of Buddhist scriptures with a library of this size?

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