Virtual Kozukue 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokohama #5 Shokan-ji Temple

     Nakata Tozaemon (?-1635) built a small hermitage in Kawashima Village in 1594 as a memorial to his father and other family members, who were killed in the fights when Odawara Castle fell and the Later Hojo Clan surrendered in 1590.  Later, he invited Priest Shugyu to make it a Buddhist temple.  Its main deity is his father's portable guardian Arya Avalokitesvara statue.  The temple has a Kannon-do building too, and its deity is the statue of Cintamanicakra, who usually has 6 arms and holds chintamani (a wish-fulfilling jewel) in one of the six.  Besides the building, there stands a stone monument dated 1344.  The precincts might have been holy for the family and villagers since those days.

     Where did the Cintamanicakra statue come from?

     It is recorded that Kasahara Nobutame died in 1577.  Nobutame's son was Yasukatsu, whose son was Terushige, whose son was Shigemasa, who worked for Tokugawa Ieyasu.  Shigemasa's son was Nobushige, whose adapted son was Tametsugu, whose son was Nobutane.  They all succeeded the samurai name of Echizen-no-kami.  In 1722, when one of the Echizen-no-kami's was the head of the family, his wife and daughter died one after another, and also the domain was hit hard by the flood of the Tsurumi River.  He carved 33 statues of Cintamanicakra for himself, chose 33 temples which were associated with Kannon in his domain, and presented the statues to them.  Later in 1732, those 33 temples were organized into Kozukue 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     With the Nakata Family returning to the farming from being samurai, Shokan-ji Temple became less prosperous.  After the expulsion of Buddhism at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, no priest lived in the temple.  Then, in 1928, the 14th head of the family, Yosaku, repaired the building and invited Priest Shunmyo to revive the temple.

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