Rakuyo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

     The 33 temples of Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage were distributed throughout the Kansai area and were hard for ordinary citizens to visit, so Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192) organized Rakuyo Kannon Pilgrimage.  Rakuyo, or Luoyang, used to be an ancient capital city of China, and the name was sometimes used to mention the Heian-kyo Capital, or Kyoto.  The distribution of the 33 member temples of Rakuyo Kannon Pilgrimage is, as such, very compact, only in Kyoto City.  This was the first city-type 33 Kannon pilgrimage in Japan.

     The pilgrimage was discontinued with the Onin War (1467-1477), but was revived in 1665.  It was suspended again due to the anti-Buddhism movement during the Meiji Restoration, but was revitalized again in 2005.