Virtual Yokohama City 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #6 Daiko-ji Temple

     Yokohama City has 35 to 72 Sugiyama Shrines today.  The record of Sugiyama Shrine, which seems to have been pronounced Sogiyama at the time though, dates back to 838 in Shoku Nihon Koki, the fourth volume in the Six National Histories.  The shrine was located in Tsuzuki County, Musashi Province, and was officially admitted to have psychic power.  It is unknown which Sugiyama Shrine out of 72 was original.

     Sugiyama Shrine in Ota is supposed to have branched out from that in Shin-Yoshida, Kohoku Ward, Yokohama today, and to have been founded sometime before 1376.

     Daiko-ji Temple used to be the shrine temple of Sugiyama Shrine in Ota.   The god in the shrine used to be recognized as the local manifestation of Bhaisajyaguru, and the shrine used to have the statue of Bhaisajyaguru accordingly.  After the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868, the temple was separated from the shrine with the statue.

     The black temple gate was brought from the rice warehouses of Mutsuura Domain to the temple and reconstructed.  The lords of the domain, the Yonekura Family, used to fight for the Takeda Clan.  After the clan was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) in 1582, they worked for the Tokugawa Clan.

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