Ise 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

     Ono Takamura (802-853) was recorded to have gone on Ise 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.  He was an associate counselor in the Imperial Court of Japan, and was also a good tanka poet.  His tanka poems appeared in Hyakunin Isshu (a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese tanka poems by one hundred poets) and in Kokin Wakashu (namely, "Collection of Japanese Poems of Ancient and Modern Times” compiled in the 10th century).  He was so capable, competent, and efficient that legend has it that he helped Yama to judge the dead in Hell at night, while he worked for the Imperial Court in the daytime.