Virtual Ika 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

Ika 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized in Ika County, Omi Province, in 1828.  Ika County constitutes Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture, today. The area is well known as “Kannon no Sato” (literally, Kannon Neighborhoods). As the societies are getting rapidly aging, some temples have become priest-less or discontinued. Yet, the villagers are voluntarily supporting their Kannon statues in the area.

     The isthmus between Wakasa Bay and Ise Bay is the narrowest and, accordingly, the lowest part of Honshu Island.  The Fukasaka Pass between Wakasa Bay and Lake Biwa has only the altitude of 370 meters when Lake Biwa is 86 meters above sea level.  The area around the pass lets the northern winds from the Sea of Japan blow into Ika County.  The winds make the air moist and have the snow fall a lot in winter.   In winter, Ika is, in the weather forecast, sorted into the regions along the Japan Sea coast, while it is grouped into Central Kansai in the other seasons.  As the Japan Sea coast has good sake breweries, so does Ika.

     While it is the geography and climate that brews the culture as well as good Japanese sake there, it is Mt. Kodakami that governs the spirit of the culture.  People in Ika County much more care about Mt. Kodakami, which is 923 meters high, than about the northern winds through the Fukasaka Pass.  The climate and the attention to Mt. Kodakami nurtured their unique belief in Avalokitesvara.

     Some believe in Arya Avalokitesvara.  But Arya Avalokitesvara can metamorphose into 6 forms according to those who are to be relieved: #1 Ekadasamukha, who has 11 faces, #2 Sahasrabhuja, who has 1,000 arms, #3 Cintamanicakra, who usually has 6 arms and holds chintamani (a wish-fulfilling jewel) in one of the six, #4 Hayagriva , who has the head of a horse, #5 Cundi, who has 16 arms and appears to be female, and #6 Amoghapasa, who usually has 3 eyes and 8 arms.  It was Arya Avalokitesvara and those 6 metamorphoses that had been believed in around Ika County.  Some even argued Avalokitesvara could transform the figure into 33 types.  It is the argument that the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, which has 33 Avalkitesvara temples, has been based on for more than a millennium.  In 1828, Ika people copied the idea.