Virtual Quasi-Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #32 Daizen-ji Temple

     Daizen-ji Temple’s precincts have some itabi.  The oldest one is dated 1248.  The oldest itabi in Japan was built in 1227, so the precincts must have been a holy place since quite old days.  There has been a small hermitage since old times.  

     In the middle of the 16th century, a Chan monk brought an Amitabha statue from Kamakura, and enshrined it in the hermitage.  Priest Hon’yo (?-1681) turned it a temple.

     What happened in the middle of the 17th century?

     In 1641, the Kan’ei Great Famine broke out.  It lasted till 1643.  In 1644, the Ming Dynasty collapsed in China, and Aisin Gioro Fulin (1638-1661) entered Beijing to establish the Qing Dynasty.  The Tokugawa Shogunate was busy grasping the whole situation in and outside Japan.  Domestically, they tightened the controls over peasants.  The religion control meant a chance for Buddhist temples.  Hon’yo might have made good use of the chance to turn a hermitage into a temple.  In 1649, the villagers built an Arya Avalokitesvara statue.

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