Virtual Old Awa 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #3 Daifuku-ji Temple

     India has many Buddhist caves.  They are rock-cut architecture, which contains Buddhist images.  China also has some Buddhist temple grottoes, which contain Buddhist images.  Japan imported Buddhism from India through China.  The Ancient and Medieval Japanese people seemed to have tried to follow Indian and Chinese people, only to sculpture cliffs into Buddhist images.  There might have been some geological reasons.

     Daifuku-ji Temple has a statue of Ekadasamukha, who has 11 faces, which was sculptured out of the cliff at the back of the temple in 717.  Tradition has it that it was Gyoki (668-749) who sculptured the statue.  Gyoki got an inspiration from the one who was working for a Shinto shrine, wished for the sea safety and good catches of the local fishers, and sculptured the statue.

     Later, Ennin (794-863) visited the precincts and built a temple building for the statue.

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