Virtual Akigawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #28 Joko-ji Temple

 

     Joko-ji Temple was founded at the foot of Yuzuriha Shrine, whose history is unknown, presumably after the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which ordered every citizen to belong to a Buddhist temple.  After the Meiji Restoration, the temple building was used as Kiwada Branch School of Yozawa School, and was abolished as a Buddhist temple as the Meiji Restoration Government made Shinto its state religion.  The modernization after World War II rather decreased the population of Kiwadadaira, and the site of Joko-ji Temple has its graveyard and the Kiwadadaira Community Center.

     Daphniphyllum macropodum is a shrub or small tree found in China, Japan and Korea.  The tree is called yuzuriha, namely give-way-to leaves, in Japan as the leaves of the previous year fall off as if giving way to the young leaves which appear on the branches in spring.  We have some Yuzuriha Shrines in Japan, and their believers are supposed to have worshiped the generation changes of the trees.

Address: 1220 Yozawa, Akiruno, Tokyo 190-0171

Yuzuriha Shrine

Address: 1223 Yozawa, Akiruno, Tokyo 190-0171