Old Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Tentoku-ji Temple

      Priest Shonen built Tenchi-an Hermitage in 1533 at the site where Momiji-yama Hill was built in the Edo Castle later.  Shonen was from Shinagawa, Musashi Province, and entered priesthood at the age of 8 in Zojo-ji Temple.  He lived in Jokoku-ji Temple in Iwatsuki Village (1 Chome-25-1 Kakura, Iwatsuki Ward, Saitama City today), founded Tenchi-an Hermitage, lived there for 3 years, Moved to Jukyo-ji Temple in Matsusaka, Ise Province, (874 Shinmachi, Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture), and lived in Isshin-in Temple (Hosen-ji Temple today, 311 Iwamicho, Oharano, Nishikyo Ward, Kyoto), and died on July 19, 1554.

     Tenchi-an Hermitage was moved to Kasumigaseki in 1585, when the Later Hojo Clan was still ruling the area, and removed to the present place in 1611, when the Edo Castle was being extended by the Tokugawa Clan.

     The Kanto Region used to have unique religious monuments: Itabi.

Itabi is a type of a stone monument or a Japanese pagoda.  It has the flattened-shape body with a flat triangular-or-pyramidal-shape top, and is supposed to have been used as a stone grave monument, a pagoda, or a stupa for remembrance.  The pagoda body can include images (tengai decoration, flower vases, censer, candlestick), sanskrit characters in a circle above a lotus decoration, poetic and religious texts, the commemoration date, zodiac signs and information about the builder and the reason for the creation of the itabi.  The itabi is placed directly in the ground or on a platform.

     Itabi were used in medieval Buddhism from the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) to the early Edo Period (1603-1868), or from the early 13th century to the 17th century.  There are many itabi in the Kanto region, and they spread to other parts of Japan as the Kanto samurais were dispatched to those places to strengthen the power of the Kamakura Shogunate.

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