The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2310 page)

 
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S
ji-ji
.

One of the two major
S
t
Zen monasteries in Japan (along with
Eihei-ji
). It was founded in the 8th cent. CE, by Gy
gi as a
Hoss
monastery, but it became Zen under Keizan J
kin in 1321. When it was destroyed by fire in 1898, it was moved to Yokoh
ma, its present location. By the religious laws promulgated at the outset of the Edo period (1615), the two were accorded exactly equal status, and other S
t
temples were made subordinate to them. Nevertheless, S
ji-ji had, by the 18th cent., 16,179 branch temples, compared with 1,370 of Eihei-ji. Not until 1879 was a formal agreement (
ky
wa meiyaku
) reached that both were to have equal say in S
t
. The establishing of a central office (S
t