Virtual Koma 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #3 Ensen-ji Temple

 

     Tradition says that Ensen-ji Temple was founded by Kukai when he visited the Kanto Region sometime between 824 and 834.  Priest Keishu revived the temple sometime between 1716 and 1735.

     Bad weather started at the end of 1731.  In 1732, the rainy season lasted for 2 months, and that caused a cold summer.  Harmful planthoppers bred on rice plants.  In 46 domains, their rice harvest reduced to 27 percent.  969,900 people died of hunger.  In the Kanto Region, tax increases imposed by Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751) had weakened the resilience of peasants.  In 1733, the price of rice soared in Edo.  1,700 people assaulted the building of Takama Denbe, a rice dealer, and threw his household goods and straw bags in a river.  After the famine, Aoki Kon’yo (1698-1769) diffused planting sweet potatoes as famine food.  He was nicknamed Dr. Sweet Potato. 

     The precincts have Myoken Shrine, where Sudrsti is enshrined.  Sudrsti was the deity of the deification of the northern pole star and/or the Big Dipper.  Tradition says that the Sudrsti statue was brought back from Kyoto by Taira Masakado (903-940), who was a hero in the Kanto Region and was a villain in Kyoto.  When Masakado was defeated by Tawara Tota, Watanuki Toyohachi, Masakado’s vassal, hid himself in Hiramatsu Village, concealed the statue, and prayed to it at home.  Generations later, Watanuki Isuke obtained approval to enshrine the statue in the precincts of Ensen-ji Temple in 1847.

Address: 376 Hiramatsu, Hanno, Saitama 357-0014

Phone: 042-973-5716