Virtual Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #29 Senzo-in Temple

 

     Senzo-in Temple was founded by Priest Chikaku (?-1199) in November, 1192.

     There used to be 4 Shugendo practice halls in Kamakura: Senzo-in at Yamasaki, Gongen-do in Kamegaya, Aizen-bo and Zoken-do in Nikaido. 

     Minamoto Yoritomo asked Priest Chikaku of Senzo-in to visit Kumano to pray for the gods there to help Yoritomo govern the country and people.  The priest stayed in Kumano for 21 days, and got the Three Buddhist Images of Amitabha, which had Amitabha in the center, Avalokitesvara on the left, and Mahasthamaprapta on the right, one of the most popular styles of main deities in temples in Japan, and 3 other souvenirs: (1) a talisman of Gozu Tenno (literally "Ox-Headed Heavenly King"), who was a syncretic Japanese deity of disease and healing, (2) 2 guidepost stones, and (3) 2 Asian bayberries, a holy plant in the Kumano Sanzan shrine complex in Kii Province, which comprised Kumano Hayatama Taisha, Kumano Hongu Taisha, and Kumano Nachi Taisha.

     Strangely enough, Chikaku put those souvenirs on a boat made of a camphor tree, and floated them out of Kumano.  After 15 days, mysteriously enough, they arrived at the Nakahara Beach in Kuraki County, Musashi Province, which was located on the other side of the Miura Peninsula.

     Impressed with the holy consideration, Yoritomo ordered Chikaku to build a shrine near the beach.  Chikaku search for a good location which overlooked the sea in the east.  And he invited the 3 gods, Ketsumi, Hayatama, and Musubi, from Kumano, and started building a branch shrine of the Kumano Sanzan shrine complex on the top of a hill on May 6, completed it on November 15, and founded Kishu-zan Tokoku-ji Temple as the shrine temple.

     The strange and mysterious legend implies a possible sea route and even human transfer between Kumano and the Miura Peninsula.  Since ancient times, Kumano provided pirates to other places in Japan.

     Even during the Warring States Period in Japan, the sea forces under the direct control of the Mori Clan, the largest and strongest warlord along the Seto Inland Sea, were no match against Murakami Pirates, who were said to have developed under the strong influence of Kumano Pirates.  Kumano Pirates were said to have commanded the Seto Inland Sea before the written history of Japanese piracy.  They exported their personnels even to Eastern Provinces in the Warring States Period.

     The Japanese Archipelago has 34,600 kilometers of shoreline, which is shorter than America’s 56,700 kilometers but longer than Brazil’s 5,760 kilometers.  The islands are washed by the Black and Tsushima Currents from the south and by the Kuril Current from the north.

     The Black Current starts off Philippines, flows northward between the Formosa Island and the Ryukyu Islands, and, turning northeastward,  passes between the Ryukyu Islands and the Kyushu Island toward the south coasts of the Shikoku and Honshu Islands, transporting warm, tropical water.  The current brings not only tropical water but also fish, corals, seeds of tropical plants such as coconuts, blocks of dead aromatic trees, and even culturally, sometimes even militarily, advanced alien people.

     In 840, the third official history book,  Nihon Koki, was compiled, which covered the years 792-833.  Its volume 8 had an entry about a drifted alien:

     "In July, Autumn, 799, one man on a small boat drifted ashore in Mikawa Province.  He wore full-length cloth, a loincloth, but not trousers.  He covered his left shoulder with a piece of dark blue cloth, which looked like a Buddhist priest’s sash.  He was about 20 years old, was about 167 centimeters tall, and had 10-centimeter-long ears.  We couldn’t understand his language, nor could identify his nationality.  When Chinese people saw him, they said he was a Kunlun man.  Later, he mastered Japanese, and said he was from India.  He was always playing an one-string harp.  His singing voice was always melancholy and sorrowful.  When we checked his belongings, we found something like grass seeds.  He said they were cotton seeds.”

     Those days, Chinese called those from South-East Asia as Kunlun people.  The man might have been blown eastward somewhere in South China Sea, and washed on the Black Current as far as off Mikawa Provinces.

     Thus, the automatical arrival of Chikaku's sourvenirs was not totally impossible, but we should rather think someone carried them by sea.

     Senzo-in Temple used to be located in Kamakura.  After the Siege of Kamakura, which was fought between the Hojo Clan and Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338), it moved to Tokoku-ji Temple.

     After the Meiji Restoration, the temple was abolished, and the building where the deity had been enshrined came to belong to Kumano Shrine.  The membership as #29 of Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage was transferred to Koshu-ji Temple, and its Cintamanicakra statue is regarded #29 member deity of the pilgrimage.  Where is the original member deity, the Arya Avalokitesvara statue, gone?

Kumano Shrine

Address: 4 Chome-5-17 Nakahara, Isogo Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 235-0036

Phone: 045-771-6534

Koshu-ji Temple

Address: 5 Chome-9-6 Mori, Isogo Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 235-0023

Phone: 045-751-7608