Reigan (霊巌)

Reigan (May 9, 1554 - October 15, 1641) was a priest of the Jodo sect of the early Edo period. His azana (adult male nickname) was Oyo. His posthumous name was Shofu. He was from Suruga Province.

He entered the priesthood under Zoyo of Joun-ji Temple in his early teens, and he learnt from Doyo Teiha of Daigan-ji Temple at Omi in Shimousa Province (today's Chuo Ward, Chiba City) when he was 15 years old. Later, he became a resident priest of Daigan-ji Temple, and built many Jodo sect temples in many places, including Reigan-in Temple in Nara and Yamada Reigan-ji Temple. He accepted Ieyasu TOKUGAWA's becoming a believer and built Reigan-ji Temple (Koto Ward, Tokyo) on Reigan-jima island in Chuo Ward, Tokyo in 1624; however, the temple was burnt down by the Great Fire of Edo in 1657 and the temple moved to Fukagawa, Edo, and after that the temple became one of the Kanto juhachi danrin (eighteen temples for studying the Jodo Sect determined by the Edo government). In 1629, he became the 32nd head priest of Chion-in Temple in Kyoto, and when Chion-in Temple was burnt down by fire, he rebuilt it under the aegis of the grandson of Ieyasu, the 3rd Shogun, Iemitsu TOKUGAWA.

[Original Japanese]