About the five-ring tower | blog | Shimanami Memory for the ocean scatter of the Seto Inland Sea

Thank you for visiting. I joined the company in mid-December, and my boss showed me around the company on the day I joined the company. At that time, a five-ringed pagoda was displayed at the entrance of Murakami stone, and he told me, ``This is a five-ringed pagoda, and it is very virtuous.''

I wanted to share this with everyone, so today I would like to talk about the Olympic Tower.

What is the five-ring tower?

A five-ring pagoda is a type of pagoda that is mainly used as a grave or memorial tower, and is also called a five-ring sotoba. A cemetery, as you know, is a place where the ashes are buried. On the other hand, memorial pagodas are pagodas built for the purpose of memorial services for the deceased so that they can rest in peace. In addition to cemeteries and temples, we often see pagodas erected near natural disasters and wars.

Five-ringed pagoda meaning

The shape of each stone is also made with meaning.

It represents the five elements of the universe: sky, wind, fire, water, and earth. In the modern world, there is the sky, the wind blows, the fire burns, the water, and the ground. In the same order from the top, it is composed of the empty ring, the wind ring, the fire ring, the water ring, and the earth ring.

Characters to engrave on the five-ring pagoda

The characters carved on the five-ring pagoda also differ depending on the sect. In modern times, the rule that you have to engrave a certain character for each sect has faded, but here I would like to introduce the ones that are generally engraved.

Shingon Buddhism ‥‥It is engraved in Sanskrit and read as "sky (ky), wind (ka), fire (la), water (ba), earth (a)".

Tendai Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism: “Mystery, Dharma, Lotus, Flower, Sutra”

Pure Land Buddhism: "South, Nothing, Ami, Tathagata, Buddha"

Rinzai Buddhism/Soto Buddhism: “Sky, Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth”

Jodo Shinshu Buddhism ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ing so, we will not build a five-ringed pagoda. This is a general idea, and even in Jodo Shinshu, there are people who build it depending on the region.

The history of the five-ring tower

Five-ring pagodas began to be built in the latter half of the Heian period. After the end of the Kamakura period, it became popular as a general grave. At that time, 80% of the graves were five-ring pagodas, but from the middle of the Edo period, Japanese-style graves, which are still common today, became common.

The idea of the Five Elements is said to have originated in India, but no five-ring pagoda tombs have been found in India, China, or Korea, so it is said to be a uniquely Japanese tomb that was born in Japan.

Although the way of thinking is different, from a religious point of view, it is believed that all things in the universe, the five-ringed pagoda, which is required by the universe, are more virtuous than individual graves such as Japanese and Western graves.

Five-ringed pagodas are a way of expressing gratitude to one's ancestors.In modern times, there are many Western-style tombs with Japanese-style tombs.