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Date Masamune ended his life at the age of 70 at his Edo Sakurada Kamiyashiki residence on May 24, 1636. His body was immediately sent to Sendai and buried at Kyogamine to fulfill his will. Zuihoden is a mausoleum for Date Masamune that was built upon the graveyard.
Okuyama University, a chief retainer, was ordered by Date Tadamune to be the leader of the construction of a mausoleum for Date Masamune (father).
According to the “Teizankojikakiroku” (an old document that recorded the politics of Date Masamune), Date Masamune’s body was buried at Kyogamine on June 4, 1636. According to the “Gisankojikekiroku” (an old document that recorded the politics of Date Tadamune), the construction of the mausoleum began in September, 1636, and completed on October 24, 1637, giving it the name of Zuihoden. From this, we can see that it only took one year to complete the construction of Kyogamine and the mausoleum.
Although there is no official record of the origin of the name “Zuihoden”, “瑞” can be seen in Date Masamune’s buddhist name “瑞巌寺殿貞山禅利大居士 (Zuiganjiden Teizanzenri Daikoji)”. “鳳” is estimated to depict 鳳凰 (a Chinese phoenix), an imaginary phoenix from China. “殿” is usually used to describe shrines and temples. On the building sign (which they put on the building to state various information about the building that is being constructed) on Zuihoden before it got burnt down, it said “the building is built with excellent techniques and it represents the peaceful and joyful world we live in today”, which included “瑞” and “鳳凰”.
B-5. Could you tell us about the structure of the main temple of Zuihoden?
Zuihoden was built by Date Tadamune in autumn of 1637, however, it was burnt down due to the Sendai Air Raid on July 10, 1945. It was in 1979 Zuihoden was reconstructed with a modern technology in the form of a reinforced building. In 2001, a large-scale repair construction was conducted, and the ornaments of the current building are much like how they were when they were first built back in 1637.
have any numerical data for the cost of reconstructing Zuihoden in the same style (same materials, construction methods and conditions). It is difficult to estimate the construction cost based on today’s market cost because we cannot evaluate the then materials as well as the construction techniques on today’s standards. Moreover, there is no official record of how much it cost to construct Zuihoden in any of old documents of the Date family. However, we suppose there was a lot of manpower put into the construction of mausoleums and Kyogamine as it was done within one year.
The reconstructed main temple of Zuihoden is a one-storied reinforced concrete building with a square roof and bronze roofs 33.6F = 10 tsubo (same floor space as the original main temple). The building is 4.11m in eaves height and 9m in height (including the tip of the jewelry ornament). The reconstructed house of worship (note: the current house of worship was planned as a divided house of worship, thus, it has a different exterior and size) is a one-storied reinforced concrete building, and has a gabled roof with bronze roofs 51.8F = 16 tsubo (approximately 1/2 of the floor space of the original building). The building is 2.9m in eaves height and 5.2m in height. The reconstructed Nehanmon is a one-storied wooden building, and has a gabled roof with bronze roofs 5.78F = 18 tsubo (same floor space as the original). It is 2.8m in eaves height and 5.5m in height. The reconstructed Gokujo building (the current building for Zuihoden History Museum) is a one-storied reinforced concrete building with a hipped roof with bronze roofs 137F = 41.5 tsubo (note: the reconstructed Gokujo building was planned as a history museum, thus, it has a different exterior and size). The original building of zuihoden had a corridor that connected the gate, the main temple and the house of worship and another corridor that connected the Gokujo building and the side of the main temple, however, they were excluded from the reconstruction process.
Although the main bodies of the current main temple and house of worship are reinforced concrete buildings, the Nehanmon was constructed with Aomori Hiba trees. The top-quality lacquer was used to paint the main temple, house of worship as well as the Nehanmon.
Zuihoden was reconstructed with a modern construction method in 1979 (refer B-8). It took five years and cost approximately 800 million yen then to complete the reconstruction of the main temple, the house of worship, the Nehanmon and other related facilities as well as the excavation project that was conducted prior to the construction.
When Zuihoden was burnt down in 1945, the bronze crown sculpture on the corner of the roof on the main temple remained. During the reconstruction of Zuihoden in 1979, the gate, the crown sculpture roof and the ornamental lion head on the pillar of the main temple were excluded from the process. The house of worship was changed to a divided house of worship, resulting in half the area of the original building. The dragon sculptures on both sides of the Nehanmon were excluded as well. Moreover, the large-scale construction was conducted in 2001, and eight crown sculptures and eight lion heads were reconstructed. They also changed the concrete entablatures (Kumimono and Kashiranuki) to wooden entablatures.
Eight “A Un” crown sculptures (made by Takada Kyube in 1627) were located on the corner of the roof of the original building of Zuihoden. Zuihoden was burnt down on July 10, 1945, however, the bronze crown sculptures remained the air raid (uncertain number), and four of them (1 A sculpture and 3 Un sculptures) were preserved in Matsushima Town (Miyagi Prefecture), and two of them were preserved at Zuihoji Temple (Sendai City). On May 24, 1999, two Un sculptures out of the four sculptures preserved in Matsushima Town were brought back to Zuihoden via the Date Family (Date Yasumune, the eighteenth leader of the family), and they are now exhibited at the precincts of Zuihoden as well as Zuihoden History Museum. Six crown sculptures have been discovered to this day.
Zuihoden, a former national treasure, was burnt down due to the Sendai Air Raid that occurred on July 10, 1945, and lost its value as a tangible cultural property (historical structure). We could say we lost a spiritual asset and a historical figure of Sendai.
he Date family possessed various family crests, such as “Mibikiryo”, “Kiku”, “Kiri”, “Botan”. “Kanibotan”, “Kuyo” and “Yukiusu”, aside from their main family crest of “Take-ni-Jaku”. The “Kiku (chrysanthemum” and “Kiri (paulownia)” crests were presented by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and they were used for Zuiganji Temple, Osaki Hachiman Shrine and Sendai Castle.
The Hengaku of the Zuihoden House of Worship, before it was burnt down, read “Sabunzan at the age of 76” (Sabunzan: Sasaki Bunzan (calligrapher)). The Hengaku at the current House of Worship is a replica of the original Hengaku.
Zuihoden, before it was burnt down, was designated as a national treasure for being a Momoyama-style mausoleum from the early Edo period. The current Zuihoden was reconstructed in 1979 by a modern method of construction, thus, it is not designated as any form of cultural asset today.
Zuihoden, Date Masamune’s mausoleum, was reconstructed in the style of a reinforced concrete building with fireproof in 1979 for it was burnt down due to an air raid during WWII. However, the concrete ornaments began to degrade after twenty years since the reconstruction, thus, a large-scale repair construction (a complete repair of the entire building), including the body foundation, was conducted based on the report from the Degradation Factor Investigation Committee for lacquered buildings of Zuihoden as well as the Zuihoden Repair Examination Committee. Restoration of the eight crown sculptures and eight lion head sculptures, which were excluded in the first reconstruction process, were conducted along with the restoration of ornaments, such as sculptures and crests, to match the colors used back in 1637.
Zuihoden was restored by Zuihoden Restoration Association in 1979. Incorporated Association Zuihoden has been managing and maintaining Zuihoden since then.
Mausoleums of similar styles can be seen on graveyards of various renowned feudal lords from the Edo period. In the Sendai Domain, Tamaya (Incorporated Foundation Zuihoden unifies Tamaya with the current address, Tamayashita, Aoba-ku, Sendai City, thus, calls and writes it Tamaya) was built for some family members of the second and third feudal lords of the Sendai Domain since Date Tsunamura, the fourth feudal lord of the Sendai Domain.