Oshu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage β

     Oshu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage β was organized in 1123 by an old Shinto maiden Asahi, who was living in Shiga, Natori county.  She had been worshipping Three Kumano Shrines, and had visited Kumano every year.  As she got old, she stopped visiting Kumano.  Instead, she built small Three Kumano Shrines and kept worshipping them.  One day, an itinerant yamabushi, or an itinerant Japanese mountain ascetic, brought a leave of a nagi tree, a sacred tree in Kumano Shrines, on which her tanka poem had been scribbled:

“Far art thou

Old am I

Please remember me

I will remember thee.”

     The ascetic had been told by the god of Kumano Shrines in his dream to bring the leave to  Asahi.  She was filled with emotion at the divine favor, and organized a 33 Kannon pilgrimage.