Osaka 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in My Order (5)

#31 Daifuku-in Temple

     Please, guide me. Let me die in peace. Thus, we hang 5-colored strings' one end to the hand of a Buddhist image and grip the other end. One of the 5 colors is white, and the place name Shiraga (White Hair) has that white color in it. Visiting Kannon-do Hall in Shiraga-cho can surely be answered. In addition to that, the main deity of the hall is an eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue which was carved by Kasuga, a legendary Buddhist sculptor, out of the same wood of the main deity of Hase-dera Temple by Kasuga. How rewarding visiting the hall with the statue could be! 

     There used to be Shiraga-cho in today's Shinmachi, Nishi Ward, Osaka. Even today, there is a stone monument which was built where there used to be Shiraga Bridge (3 Chome-6 Shinmachi, Nishi Ward, Osaka, 550-0013). In ancient times, the ships from Silla were anchored along a sand cape in the area. The cape was called Shiraga-saki. It means Silla's Cape since the Japanese phrase "ga" indicates possessive. Years passed, the origin of the place name was forgotten, people were confused, and the Silla's Cape came to be pronounced Shirasuzaki, which literally meant White Sand Dune Cape, and which sounds very common as a place name.

     There used to be an eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue enshrined in Mt. Hiei. One night, the statue said to Monk Ikkaku, "I have a destined place along the seashore in the south-west. I'd like to go there and benefit people there." Ikkaku arrived at Shirasuzaki, realized it the destined place for the statue, and built a hermitage there to enshrine the statue.

     Daifuku-in Temple used to stand on the north bank of Amida-ike Pond (3 Chome-3 Kitahorie, Nishi Ward, Osaka, 550-0014), and kept the hall.

     Sato Norikiyo (1118-1190), whose pen name was Saigyo, composed a poem: 

In the Naniwa tideland,

When the tide is on the ebb,

I go to Shirasuzaki to to gather shellfish.

     It is unknown when the hermitage became Daifuku-in Temple, but it was abolished after the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868 and the statue was moved to Ensho-ji Temple in 2 Chome Shitaderamachi, Tennoji Ward. Ensho-ji Temple was abolished too, and the statue's whereabouts are unknown. Did it find another destiny or destination?

     I found several car dealers and other shops including a hotel along Shitaderamachi. Ensho-ji Temple might have become one of them.