Kawachi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage ---in My Order---

     The city name Sakai (literally Border) comes from the location of the city: it used to be located at the border of the 3 provinces: Izumi, Kawachi, and Settsu Provinces.  The station name Mikunigaoka (namely Three-Province Hill) also has the same history.

     As I live in Sakai, which was basically located in Izumi Province, I though I should express my respect to the neighboring 33 Kannon pilgrimages: Kawachi and Settsu 33 Kannon Pilgrimages.

     One day, I drove east to visit a couple fo the member temples of Kawachi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     The Kansai area, at large, has had Saigoku Kannnon Pilgrimage with 33 temples since the 8th century.  In Kawachi Province, which now belongs to Osaka Prefecture, the reduced-size copy of the 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized with another set of 33 temples during Edo Period.

     Because of the unique character of Kawachi Province, Kawachi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage cannot classified as a domain-based pilgrimage although the 33 temples are distributed within a province.

     In the Edo Period, Kawachi Province used to be constituted with small estates and territories of the Tokugawa Shogunate, of the Shogun’s direct retainers, and of the absentee lords in distant domains such as Shimodate, Odawara, Numata, and Tatebayashi, and also comprised small domains such as Sayama and Tannan.  The Sayama domain used to consist of only 28 villages in Kawachi Province, and the Tannan Domain with just 20 villages.  Thus, Kawachi Province wasn’t governed as a whole domain. That affected the way Kawachi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized and revived.  To put it another way, it was organized and revived somewhat like a city-based pilgrimage.

#6 Houn-ji Temple

     I drove east from the center of Sakai, a medieval port town, and arrived at the junction of Takenouchi Kaido (Takenouchi Ancient Highway) and Shimo-Koya Kaido (Mt. Koya Medieval Highway, Lower).  Here, the northward street ran to Osaka, the medieval commercial capital, the eastward street ran to Nara, or Heijo-kyo, the ancient capital, and the southward street would take you to Mt. Koya, the millennium-old religious center.

     I drove southward a little bit, and Houn-ji Temple was not so far, about 1 kilometer southwest, from the junction.

#4 Ryuun-ji Temple

     Ryuun-ji Temple is the most southwestern member temple of Kawachi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     Finishing my business in the eastern part of Sakai, it occurred to me to visit Ryuun-ji Temple.  I took less than half an hour to drive to the temple.  As is often the case with visiting Izumi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, the streets around Ryuun-ji Temple were so narrow that I had difficulties to go past other cars.  What a relief!  The temple had a parking area.

The temple yard had statues to show the landmark events of Buddha’s life.

     On another day, I decided to continue my pilgrimage on Kawachi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage a little bit more.

#5 Dairin-ji Temple

     The Medieval Sakai Port used to be called Sakai Beach in Ancient Japan, which laid at the border of Settsu and Izumi Provinces.  Yes, Sakai literally means the border.  To the east, there lay Mikuni Hill.  Mikuni meant three provinces: Settsu, Izumi and Kawachi Provinces.

     I drove east out of Sakai into Matsubara first to visit one of the westernmost member temples of Kawachi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     Soon after getting into Matsubara, I turned left and drove northward along Nishiyoke River.  Darin-ji Temple was just along the river bank.

     The temple itself was small, but was prepared to offer the certificate of your visit.

     After the visit, I then continued to drive northeast by north to visit the southernmost temple among the 33 of Settsu Kannon Pilgrimage.

To be continued