Virtual Sayama 33 Kannon Pilgrimag #8 Shinko-ji Temple

 

     Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) played falconry in Nasunogahara from April 2nd to 23rd in 1193.  Nasunogahara is the largest alluvial cone in Japan, and thus was unsuitable for raising rice.  It was an ideal hunting ground.  On his way to Nasunogahara, he had lunch at Kotesashigahara.  He recognized an Arya Avalokitesvara statue, and presented the day-camping lot he stayed to the statue.  As Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338) prided himself on being Yoritomo's heir, he called on the statue on his way to attack Kamakura.  After his triumph over the Hojo Clan, he presented some field to the statue.

     Priest Doko (1430-1501) left Kyoto in June, 1486.  He walked through Wakasa, Echizen, Kaga, Noto, Ecchu, and Echigo Provinces, and then entered the Kanto Region from Kozuke Province.  He toured in the region for 10 months.  He said that there was an Avalokitesvara hermitage in Kotesashigahara.  Hermit Fukusen lived in the hermitage.  As Doko visited the hermitage, Fukusen offered grated yam soup in a bamboo tube to go with sake.  Doko composed a tanka poem:

On a hike in Tokorozawa

He dug a yam

To entertain me.

Address: 1 Chome−7−3 Miyamotocho, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-1143

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