Virtual Modern Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #10 Zenpuku-ji Temple

     Although we have the township Zenpukuji. and the Zenpukuji Park there, we have no Zenpuku-ji Temple itself today.

     There used to be an Osonoi Village around Osonoi Pond.  A well was the head of the brook which flew into the pond.  Osonoi’s "i" meant a water spring, and "Osono" meant either Oso's or Oso Field.  It's untraceable what Oso originally meant.

     Zenpuku-ji Temple was built on the pond, which came to be called Zenpukuji Pond after the temple, which was abolished sometime in the Edo Period, and whose history is unknown and unknowable today.  As a matter of course, it’s out of imagination why the organizer of the Modern Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage thought the temple was modern.

     The volume of water of the Osonoi Spring is large enough to support the park around Zenpukuji Pond.  The coppices of the park remind us of the Musashino Plateau of the past years, and have many birds and flowers.  From the pond, the Zenpukuji River flows out and pours down into lowlands under the plateau.  There, the river meanders, forms a couple of ponds, and causes floods occasionally.  On September 4th, 2005, for example, it rained 112 millimeters per hour, and 1,659 houses were flooded.

     About 5 kilometers down the river from the pond, Omiya-Hachiman-gu Shrine (Address: 2 Chome-3-1 Omiya, Suginami City, Tokyo 168-0061) stands.  The Omiya Site, the site of religious services, was excavated on the north-facing cliff of the Zenpukuji River near the shrine.  A village is supposed to have been formed on the south-facing side of the valley as early as 8 thousand years ago.  Villagers might have done hunting and gathering as Jomon people did on the plateau and grown rice at the bottom of the valley as Yayoi people did. 

Zenpukuji Park

Address: 3 Chome-9-10 Zenpukuji, Suginami City, Tokyo 167-0041

Phone: 03-3396-0825