Virtual Old Awa 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #9 Shinpuku-ji Temple

 

     Shinpuku-ji Temple was founded in 850’s by Ennin (794-864).  Its original Avalokitesvar statue had been carved by Gyoki (668-749).  The temple was burned down in fire in 1555, in the midst of the Warring States Period, but was rebuilt in 1669-1673 by villagers when Tokugawa Ietsuna (1641-1680) was stably ruling the country, at the cost of reducing the savings of the Tokugawa Shogunate to no less than one fifth.  He also drove home to people that every person must belong to a temple.

     In 1673, Priest Honsei invited a sculptor from Kyoto to have him carve a statue of Cintamanicakra, who usually has 6 arms and holds chintamani (a wish-fulfilling jewel) in one of the six.

     The precincts has itabi, which was erected in 1316.

     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 can be classified into 2 groups: the Musashi Province type, which were carved out of green-schist rocks from Chichibu County,  and the Shimousa Province type, which was carved out of black-schist rock from Mt. Tsukuba in Hitachi Province.  They spread to other parts of Japan as the Kanto samurais were dispatched to those places to strengthen the power of the Kamakura Shogunate.

     Awa Province has only a few itabi and the itabi in Shinpuku-ji Temple was made of green schist.  That suggests a powerful samurai family or tow might have moved from Musashi Province to Awa Province, following the Satomi Clan.

Address: 637 Okatabira, Kyonan, Awa District, Chiba 299-1903