Virtual Ika 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #17 Ooto-Senju-do Temple

     Once upon a time, there used to be a small lake at the foot of Mt. Shizuga-take in Ooto Village, with a dragon living in the lake.  Kukai (774-835) defeated the dragon, carved the statue of Ekadasamukha, who has 11 faces, and confined the dragon sealed in it.

In May, 1583, the Battle of Shizugatake broke out between Toyotomi Hideyoshi  (1536-1598) and Shibata Katsuie (1522-1583).  The battles caused the temple to burn down.  The villagers saved the statue ….  And we have 2 legends from here.

     A legend has it that the statue was safe and is still enshrined in the temple.  And the story ends happily.

     The other legend has it that the villagers hid the statue in the river (presumably in Yogo River), and it went missing.  The present deity was purchased from Wakasa Province.  The missing statue was found (mysteriously) in Kawamichi Village along Ane River.  And it became the main deity of Senju-in Temple there.

     It’s a mystery.  Yes, the upper stream of Ane River runs about 4 kilometers east over a hill.  Did the villagers run that distance to hide the statue over a hill?

     Senju-in Temple has another legend, which has it that Sugino Village along Sugino River, the upper stream of Ane River, once had a plague, against which the village Kannon statue showed no efficacy.  The villagers got angry and sank it in the river.  Later, the priest of Senju-in Temple found a sparkling gold 180-centimeter-tall Kannon statue in the deep of Ane River.  He carried it to the temple on his back.  The Kawamichi villagers were happy with the statue.  One night, the statue appeared in the priest’s dream, and said, “If people come and visit me from another village, carve a good-quality wood in the river into the same shape of mine, and give it to them.”  He did as he was told to, but nobody came to the village to visit the statue, and the 2 statues were enshrined in the temple; one as a hidden one and the other as a display.  Academically, the old one is estimated to have been made in the 9th century, and the new one in the 10th century.

     Which legend do you believe?