Virtual Nada 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

      Let me insert the Virtual Nada 33 Kannon Pilgrimage here.  It is, or must be, located between Osaka and Kobe.  As its name suggests, their locations should overlap with those of Japanese sake breweries there.  However, I've found only 4 member temples in Itami, which is also well known for its Japanese sake.  If anyone knows whereabouts of other member temples, I will appreciate their enlightenment.  I'd like to visit the pilgrimage after getting more information.

Virtual Nada 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Shokaku-in Temple

     Shokaku-in Temple was said to have been founded by Gyoki (668-749) sometime after 729.

    The precincts have the grave of Natsume Mikamaro (1773-1822).  Mikamaro was a Japanese sake brewer in Shirasuka, Hamana County, Totomi Province.  After his retirement in 1814, he toured about Osaka.  One night, when he went boating in Lake Koya-ike, he tried to catch a moon reflecting on the water and drowned. 

Address: 1 Chome−103 Teramoto, Itami, Hyogo 664-0026

Phone: 072-781-8576

Virtual Nada 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #24 Henjo-in Temple

     Henjo-in Temple used to be a retire of Koya-dera Temple, which was one of the 49 temples Gyoki (668-749) founded.

Address: 2 Chome-167 Teramoto, Itami, Hyogo 664-0026

Phone: 072-779-8622

Virtual Nada 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #25 Jokyu-ji Temple

     Asano Magozaemon and others started reclaiming the Nakano area in 1630.  The great-grandson of Magozaemon contributed their newly-reclaimed rice fields to build a temple.  Jokyu-ji Temple was established in 1683.

Tosa Hidenobu (?-?) published Butsuzo-zui (Illustrated Compendium of Buddhist Images) in 1783.  In the compendium, he listed 33 popular subjects of Buddhism Avalokitesvara drawings and paintings.  What Jokyu-ji Temple enshrines is #6 Pandara Vasini Avalokitesvar.

Address:  2 Chome-11-5 Nakanokita, Itami, Hyogo 664-0029

Virtual Nada 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 Jigen-ji Temple

     The main deity of Jigen-ji Temple is the wooden statue of Gotama Siddhartha, which was carved in 1195.

     Akamatsu Norimura (1277-1350) is believed to have said a prayer here.  When?  It is unknown.  He must have passed the area several times as he was working for Rokuhara Tandai, the Kyoto office of the Kamakura Shogunate.

     The first big dispatch from his hometown, Sayo County, to Kyoto was in 1333 during the Genko War (1331-1333).  He was on the side of Emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339) against the Kamakura Shogunate.  The 2 sides clashed against each other across the Ina River, and Jigan-ji Temple was on Norimura's side of the river.

     In 1336, Norimura sent his sons, Norisuke (?-1351) and Sadanori (1306-1374), for Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) against Emperor Go-Daigo this time.  He himself might have been defending their basement though.

Since then, he kept working and fighting for Takauji even when Takauji was militarily challenged by his younger brother Ashikaga Naoyoshi (1306-1352) in the Kanno Disturbance (1350-1352).

Address:  6 Chome-19-59 Konoike, Itami, Hyogo 664-0006