Virtual Yamanote 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #23 Joun-ji Temple

 

     Joun-ji Temple was founded in Shimizudani, Kojimachi, Edo, in 1619 by Priest Ryuha (?-1628).  When the outer moat of Edo Castle was built, the temple was moved to its present place in 1634.  Its main deity is the statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  The statue is said to have been carved by Ennin (794-864).  It became so popular that even a high-ranking aristocrat like Kikutei Koresue (1660-1709) visited the temple.  He composed a tanka poem:

I happened to visit the temple

With mountains as borrowed scenery

To never get tired of watching the garden

After retiring as the first minister in the Imperial Court, Koresue left Kyoto and stayed in Kanaya, Haibara County, Totomi Province.  It is unknown why he chose Kanaya as his final abode.

     Kanaya was a relatively newly developed town where the Tokaido Highway in the Edo Period crossed Oi River,  which was 168 kilometers long and the size of its basin is roughly 1,280 square kilometers.  It separated Totomi and Suruga Provinces.  After Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) left the provinces for the Kanto Region in 1590, Yamauchi Kazutoyo (1546-1605), a lord in Totomi Province, and Nakamura Kazuuji (?-1600), that in Suruga Province, cooperatively carried out the river improvement.  They dug the eastern side of Mt. Ushio to make the waterway straight and shorter.  With the soil dug out, they filled the old waterway.  The town of Kanaya was built on the newly reclaimed land.  Did Koresue like novelty or creativity?

     He was also a good pipa player.

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