Omi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

     One of the Omi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage hymns is dated as 1668.  And so are the extant printing woodblocks for the main deities of the 33 temples.  Some temples even argue that the pilgrimage dates back to the 16th century.

     The territory of Omi Province in Ancient Japan is exactly the same with that of today’s Shiga Prefecture, which is the rare case in the Japanese history.  In the center of Omi Province, there lay, and of course still lies, Lake Biwa, so the province has been sometimes called Kokoku (literally Lake Province): the northern part of it was called Kohoku (Lake North), and the southern part Konan (Lake South).

     The 33 temples are unevenly distributed, with many in the southern part.  Meanwhile, the northern part is called Kohoku Kannon-no-sato, with a Kannon statue in each community.  The geo-political reason why the uneven distribution of the temples of Kannon 33 Pilgrimage isn’t clear.