Virtual Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #24 Manzo-ji Temple

     Manzo-ji Temple was founded by the end of the 12th century, and was revived by Priest Genryu (?-1593).  In 1590, the Later Hojo Clan, who held hegemony over the Kanto Region for about a century, had collapsed.

     Many temples in Japan have jigo (namely temple name), and the others have ingo (namely cloister name).  Some of them even have sango (namely mountain name).  The most complicated name of a temple consists of the three names.  When a temple has 3 names, sango (mountain name) comes first, then the either ingo (cloister name) or jigo (temple name) comes second (not necessarily ingo comes second, as is sometimes suggested), and then comes the rest.

     Sango comes from China.  Buddhism first reached China during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) as a foreign mysterious religion.  It was accepted by intellectuals during the Eastern Han Dynasty, connecting Wuwei concept (literally meaning inexertion, inaction, or effortless action) in Taoism with the concept of Sunyata (translated most often as emptiness, vacuity, and sometimes voidness) in Buddhism.  After the Six Dynasties (220-589), Buddhism so flourished that they had many temples with the same name, as you may notice even in Japan today.  They came to put a place name before the name of a temple.  As Buddhist temples flourished, they accumulated wealth.  There were about 4,600 monasteries, 40,000 hermitages, 260,500 monks and nuns.  In 840’s, Emperor Wuzong (814-846) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) initiated the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism to confiscate their properties.  In 846, the Emperor Wuzong died, and the persecution was over.  However, Buddhism never completely recovered except some Chan temples in mountains which stood aloof from the worldly businesses.  Under the Kamakura Shogunate, Japan imported Chan Buddhism with the custom to put a place name (= a mountain name) before a temple name.  The custom spread to other Buddhism sects and schools.

     Ingo literally means a cloister name.  The suffix “-in” was a honorific title.  After Emperor Saga (786-842) abdicated in 823, he was called Saga-in with respect.  That was the first example of using the suffix “-in” for an retired emperor.  Those days, a retired emperor meant a cloistered emperor.

     When Fujiwara Senshi (962-1002), the mother of Emperor Ichijo (980-1011), retired as an empress dowager, she was given a honorific title “-in” for the first time as a woman.  And then some royal family members were given the honorific title “-in”.  And then the temples where those with “-in” titles as the head priests came to be also called with the suffix “-in”.  That was the start of ingo (cloister names) for temples.

     As the ancient aristocracy collapsed, the naming custom spread to other ruling classes, such as samurais, and so did ingo for temples.  Many temples with ingo in the middle of the three, use it to show the high status of them.

     Meanwhile, the suffix “-in” also meant retirement, sub-temples for retired priests in the precincts of large temples came to be named with it.  And then the naming custom spread to other sub-temples and even branch temples.  Those temples put their ingo usually at the tail of the three.

     Let’s get back to Manzo-ji Temple in Yoshihara Village.  The temple used to have the sango “Hino-san” (namely Sun Field) while Tokuon-ji Temple in Miyashita Village used to have “Senryu-zan” (namely Spring Run).  Yoshihara Village often had droughts, and Manzo-ji Temple exchanged its sango with that of Tokuon-ji Temple.  And droughts in Yoshihara Village stopped. 

     Manzo-ji Temple was listed as #24 temple of Bu-shu Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in 1775, but was merged to Komyo-ji Temple by 1931.  It was Tokuon-ji Temple that replaced the membership.

     #27 deity was said to be the Ekadasamukha statue, which has 11 faces, carved by Kasuga, presumably after he flew to Kanto on the back of the crane he had carved.  In 1920’s, Kaneko Takahide visited Kannon pilgrimages which had been organized in and around Yokohama.  He was the priest of Tofuku-ji Temple, #10 of Kozukue 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.  One day, he visited the deity at Tokuon-ji Temple.  The deity is, however, missing today.  Did something happen during World War II?

     Monk Jinsei came to Miyashita Village, Kuraki County, Sagami Province from Ninna-ji Temple in Kyoto, with the Ksitigarbha statue on his back, in 1099, when regency was declining and cloistered rule or monastery administration was about to start.  In Ninna-ji Temple, Priest Shoshin became the head priest, which had been hereditary for the descendants of Emperor Uda (867-931).  Some change might have caused Jinsei to leave the temple to the east.  The Kanesawa area was supplying another good shelter for a fugitive, other than Yabeno Village, where #22 Kinzan-ji Temple used to be located.