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Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Zuiun-ji Temple

 

     An Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha image was enshrined at the top of Mt. Nagate in 1215.  In the Edo Period, it was moved to its present place.  As Zuiun-ji Temple has a stone monument for Mount Iide, the image might have had something to do with the mountain worship of Mount Iide.

     Iidesan Shrine was founded in 652, when Priest Zhidao, who came from China, climbed to the top of Mt. Iide and named the mountain Iide.  He also likened the Iide mountain ranges to the five gods, and named them Ichi-oji, Ni-oji, San-oji, Shi-oji, and Go-oji.

     In the areas around Mount Iide, it was believed that the dead ascend to the sky and that their ancestors watch over them from the high points of Mount Iide.  A visit to Mount Iide was a rite of passage into adulthood for the local residents, and it was customary for boys to climb Mount Iide when they reached the age of 13 to 15.

     After the Meiji Restoration, the abolition of feudal domains and establishment of prefectures was implemented in 1871, and Higashikanbara District, which had been part of Aizu, was separated from Fukushima Prefecture, and Iidesan Sanctuary Shrine was incorporated into Mikawa Village (currently Aga Town), Higashikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture.  However, Ichinoki Village (present-day Kitakata City), Yama District, where the Iidesan Entrance Shrine is located, objected to this, insisting,  "Iidesan Shrine, which includes the Sanctuary Shrine and the Entrance Shrine is a part of Ichinoki Village."  In the end, in 1907, a ruling by the Department of the Interior made the pilgrimage route to Mount Iide the land of Ichinoki Village.  The current irregularly shaped borders among Fukushima, Niigata, and Yamagata Prefectures originate from this.

     Fukushima Prefecture includes the approximately 7.5 kilometers mountain trail from Mt. Mikuni, which literally means Three Provinces, and which is the topographical boundary between the three prefectures, through Mount Iide to the vicinity of Onishi-hut to the west of Peak Onishi, and the precincts of the shrine at the summit of Mount Iide.  Of this, the length is about 4 kilometers from Mt. Mikuni to Omaezaka but the width is about 91 centimeters, and the maximum width around the summit of Mount Iide and Iidesan Shrine is about 300 meters.

Address: 1405 Hagyu, Iide, Nishiokitama District, Yamagata 999-0602

Phone: 0238-72-3004

Iidesan Shrine

Address: Yamatomachi Ichinoki, Kitakata, Fukushima 969-4108

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Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #10 Fumon-bo Temple

 

     Kumano Shrine was invited to the mountainside of Mt. Kumano in Okitama County in 1129.

     The Later Three-Year War was fought in the northeastern part of Japan in the late 1080s.  It was a kind of internal strife within the Kiyohara Clan.  First, Kiyohara Iehira (?-1087) and Kiyohira (1056-1128) fought against Sanehira (?-1083).  After Sanehira’s death, Iehira clashed against Kiyohira.  From the central government, Minamoto Yoshiie (1039-1106) intervened in the conflict.  The intervention brought victory to Kiyohira, who then picked up his paternal family name, Fujiwara, and the Kiyohara Clan disappeared in 1087.

     After Kiyohira's death in 1128, his first son, Koretsune (1090-1130), and the second son, Motohira (1105-1157), fought over inheritance.  Koretsune and his family and followers, more than 20 of them, tried to flee to Echigo Province, but they were caught, and beheaded on June 8th, 1130.  Okitama County was on their escape route.

Address: 14-8 Yokomachi, Nagai, Yamagata 993-0087

Phone: 0238-84-0427

Kumano Shrine

Address: 14-24 Yokomachi, Nagai, Yamagata 993-0087

Kumano Shrine Sanctuary

Address: Iide, Nishiokitama District, Yamagata 993-0061

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Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #9 Eisen-ji Temple

 

     Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, was enshrined in the upstream gorge of Omoi River sometime between 806 and 810.  Mysteriously, many shrines and temples were founded in the North-Eastern Region in the 800's.  Eisen-ji Temple didn't exaggerate its history and hasn't passed down its founder's name.

     Omoi River is a branch of Mogami River.  Omoi River's alluvial fan was agriculturally developed from its base to its apex.  After the apex, people developed its upper reaches and formed Kurofuji Village.

Address: 662-1 Kurofuji, Shirataka, Nishiokitama District, Yamagata 992-0841

Phone: 0238-85-5060

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Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Kannon-ji Temple

 

     Priest Anchin enshrined Thousand-Armed Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha or Eleven-Faced Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja sometime between 806 and 810.  Mysteriously, many shrines and temples were founded in the North-Eastern Region in the 800's.  Most of them exaggerate their histories by assuming their founders to be historic religious leaders, but this temple has passed down an unknown name.

     Kannon-ji Temple was founded in 1164 by Nagaoka Masakatsu, whose Buddhist name was Yusei, to enshrine the statue.  He is also historically obscure.  The statue was burned in fire.  Its legs were lost and its surface was carbonized.  Its hall was rebuilt in the Warring States Period, and is the oldest building in Yamagata Prefecture.  The statue is hidden from public view, and its exhibition copy was made in the Edo Period.

Address: 3072 Miyama, Shirataka, Nishiokitama District, Yamagata 992-0776

Phone: 0238-85-3063

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Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #7 Enpuku-ji Temple

 

     Ayukai Shigehira lived in Takadama Village, developed an alluvial fan, and built a fortress at the foot of it.  He called his family Takadama.  The Takadama Family ruled Takadama Village for 4 generations from the 1530's to the 1560's.  Enpuku-ji Temple was their family temple.

     The temple's main deity, the gilt bronze statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, is the oldest gilt bronze Buddhist image in Yamagata Prefecture.  The statue is supposed to have been made at the end of the 7th century.  Its history is, however, not recorded.

     Okitama County first appeared in a document on January 3rd, 669.  Its county government office is supposed to have been located in today's Nagai City.  All in all, the Arya Avalokitesvara statue could have been brought to Ideha Province not long after the birth of the county presumably as a present for a local powerful family.  It is unknown whether the statue stayed in Okitama County since those days or was moved to Takadama Village later.

Address: 1207-1 Takadama, Shirataka, Nishiokitama District, Yamagata 992-0773

Phone: 0238-85-5295

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Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #6 Shoho-ji Temple

 

     Priest Doai (?-1379), who was from Yamamoto County, Dewa Province, founded Eitoku-ji Temple in Isawa County, Mutsu Province. 

     Doai, who had aspired to become a Buddhist monk from an early age, attained spiritual attainment at a Shingon sect temple called Hoju-in in Rokugo-Takano Village.  At the age of 16, he went up to Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hiei to study the teachings of the Tiantai Sect.  Several years after entering the mountain, he decided to travel around temples of various places.  According to the Nihon Dojo Rento-roku, the Biographies of the Priests of the Caodong Sect, which was compiled by Priest Yujo in 1727, he is said to have converted to the Caodong Sect when he was 24 years old.  He studied under Priest Joseki (1275-1366), the second head priest of the Soji-ji Temple in Wajima, Noto Province.  In 1355, he achieved great enlightenment and  became a Buddhist heir of Joseki, who ordered Doai to preach in the Mutsu and Dewa Provinces.  Doai spread the teachings of the Caodong Sect all over the provinces on the back of an ox.  One day, he stayed in a temple, which had been founded in 1354, and which belonged to the Tiantai Sect, in Tokiniwa Village, Okitama County, Dewa Province.

      Priest Rigen, who was a second son of a branch of the Kasai Family, and who was from Isawa County, was the apprentice of Doai, pilgrimaged in Dewa Province, and founded Jichi-in Temple in Tagawa County, Dewa Province, in 1395.  Presumably in those days, Rigen visited the temple Doai had stayed in to find it in ruins.  He revived the temple and changed it to the Caodong Sect.  As Shoho uses the same Chinese characters with the book Shobo-Ganzo, which was written by Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of Caodong Sect in Japan, the original temple's name might have been different.

Address: 1428 Tokiniwa, Nagai, Yamagata 993-0035

Phone: 0238-84-2876

Jichi-in Temple

Address: 1 Chome-4-38 Hiyoshicho, Sakata, Yamagata 998-0037

Phone: 0234-24-1164

Eitoku-ji Temple

Address: Monzen-1 Nagasakae, Kanegasaki, Isawa District, Iwate 029-4505

Phone: 0197-44-3171

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Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #5 Kannon-ji Temple

 

     Kunomoto Village was located on the side of the Nonogawa River's alluvial fan.  The village was first documented on October 2nd, 1469, when Date Shigemune (1435-1487) exempted the Omachi Family from certain taxes.

     In 1553, Date Harumune (1519-1578) registered the lands of Yume Shikibu, Hamada Yoshiro, Omachi Shichiro, Odaka Jirozaemon, Katakura Igamokami, Hamada Bizen, Otsu Shioji, Otsu Genzo's daughter, Agatsuma Bitchu, Higuchi Juroemon, and Umezu Kanbesuke.

     Generations later, Umezu Kan'emon discovered an Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue in the remains of a fire, and founded Kannon-ji Temple in 1668 to enshrine the statue.

Address: 2047 Kunomoto, Nagai, Yamagata 993-0041

Phone: 0238-84-7171