Virtual Quasi-Saigoku Inage 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #23 Zofuku-ji Temple

 

     The oldest grave in Zofuku-ji Temple is dated 1690, but the temple has far longer history as a holy place.

     In 1091, Minamoto Yoshiie (1039-1106) was marching back to Kyoto after his victory in the Later Three-Year War (1083-1087).  After a long rain, it finally cleared up and Tama River looked so clean that he and his military force started washing their horses in the river.  When they looked up to a hill on the opposite bank, they thought they saw a shrine fence shining clear and clean.  They were religiously moved, and visited the spot.  They met a part-time monk there and asked him to open the small shrine at the top, to find a strange round stone 8 centimeters in diameter.  Yoshiie and others presented their bows and arrows and prayed their own luck in war.

     Hundreds of years later, in the Warring States Period, historic figures such as Ise Shinkuro (1432-1519) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) also prayed to the stone.

     It is unknown where the stone had come from.

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