Virtual Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Fukujukai-in Temple

 

     Fukujukai-in Temple used to enshrine the Arya Avalokitesvara statue.  The temple has been abolished, and there stands a small shrine at the site to commemorate it.  The statue has been moved to Shomyo-ji Temple nearby.

     Before the modern reclamation, there used to be Nagahama Beach, which was such a successful fishing port to be said to have a thousand buildings.  In 1311, a tsunami hit the beach to wash away all the buildings.  But nobody was killed in the disaster, except the Arya Avalokitesvara statue. The villagers believed the statue made a substitute for them.

     37 years later, fishers from Shiba Village, which lay south to Nagahama Village, found something dazzlingly radiating under the sea.  They cautiously put a fishing net in the sea to catch the Arya Avalokitesvara statue which had been washed away off Nagahama Village.  The statue was covered with oyster shells all over.  How did it radiate then?

Shomyoji Shiminnomori Park

Address: Kanesawa Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 236-0015

Phone: 045-671-2624

Shomyo-ji Temple

Address: 212-1 Kanesawacho, Kanesawa Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 236-0015

Phone: 045-701-9573