Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #24 Kyuden-Kannon-do Temple

 

     Kyuden referred to rice paddies or paddy land provided by the lord of a manor or a provincial government office to manor custodians, land stewards, land tax transporters, handicraft workers, and so on in medieval Japan. The Kyuden system was established from the end of the Heian Period (794-1185) to the beginning of the Kamakura Period (1185-1333).  In the Edo Period (1603-1867), Kyuden sometimes referred to the paddy land which was given to a non-samurai important person.

     Kyuden Village in Tama County, Musashi Province, was called as such since the paddy land there was given to a certain high-ranking lady whose posthumous Buddhist name was Fumon'in.  After her death, a Japanese pagoda with the Karandamudra Dharani Sutra was built near her hermitage.  She was said to have something to do with the Kishu Tokugawa Family and, as the pagoda was located near the Koshu Highway, the vassals of the Tokugawa Clan were supposed to get off his horse in front of the pagoda.  She must have had a certain reason for her personal history to have been hidden or unrecorded.

     Later, for the sake of convenience, the hermitage and pagoda were moved to their present place.  The hermitage came to be called Kannon-do.

Address: 3 Chome-15 Kyuden, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0064