Virtual Old Kasai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #24 Reiko-ji Temple

 

     Reiko-ji Temple was founded by Mokujiki Reiko as a hermitage.  The title Mokujiki was given to those monks who ate only fruits and nuts.  Moku means a wood and jiki means to eat.  In 1626, it was registered as a temple.

     Its main deity was an Amidabha statue which was brought by Priest Jisho (1544-1620).  Jisho was born in Yugi Village, Tama County, Musashi Province.  He first became a monk of the Ji Sect.  In 1561, he converted to the Pure Land Buddhism.  In 1574, he transferred Choden-ji Temple from the Shingon Sect to the Pure Land Buddhism.  In 1584, he became the head priest of Zojo-ji Temple in Edo.  Fortune smiled on him.  In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu Moved to Edo and later changed it to the samurai capital.  Luck was further on his side.  Zojo-ji Temple became the family temple of the Tokugawa Clan, and became the second most important temple of the Pure Land Buddhism after Chion-in Temple in Kyoto.  In his career, he might have visited Chion-in Temple.  On his way back to Edo, he found a nice Amidabha statue in Ise, and brought it back as his personal guardian Buddhist image.  Jisho built a hermitage as his retreat, Kanchi-in, in the precincts of Zojo-ji Temple.  Presumably, after his death, the statue was enshrined in the hermitage founded by Reiko, and it became a temple with the statue as its main deity.   

Address: 1 Chome-9-11 Azumabashi, Sumida City, Tokyo 130-0001

Phone: 03-3623-0951