Virtual Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #24 Hosen-ji Temple

 

     Taicho (682-767) was born in Asozu (namely Aso Port) in Echizen Province as the second son of Mikami Yasuzumi, the head of a local powerful family. The Mikami Family ran the water transportation along the Hino River.  Taicho-ji Temple in Fukui still has a well whose water is said to have been used for Taicho's first bath.  Taicho became a Buddhist monk at the age of 14, with his first Buddhist name Hocho.  He climbed Mt. Ochi and trained by praying to Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha.  In 702, he was appointed by Emperor Karu (683-707) as a priest of the protection of the nation, and founded Toyohara-ji Temple in Sakai County, Echizen Province.  After that, He climbed Mt. Haku in Kaga Province in 717 and sensed Bodhisattva there.  He is said to be the first person to reach the top of Mt. Haku, and was the pioneer of mountain asceticism there.  In the same year, he founded Heisen-ji Temple in Ono County, Echizen Province.  In 719, he left Echizen Province and carried out Buddhist missionary work in various provinces presumably to spread mountain asceticism by organizing spontaneous local mountain worship.  He is believed to have visited Chichibu and founded Hosen-ji Temple.

     In 722, he prayed for the recovery from illness of Empress Hidaka (680748). It is said that, due to his success in resolving the epidemic of smallpox in 737, he was given an archbishop title, and changed his name to Taicho.

     When Taicho stayed in Chichibu, a goddess appeared to him one night.  She cut a dead tree and divided it into 3.  She carved an image of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, with the center of the dead tree, and carved 2 local mountain gods out of the end and bottom of the tree.  She called herself the sun god.

     A merciful prostitute in Koigakubo, Musashi Province, had a deep faith in the Arya Avalokitesvara statue of this temple, and she never forgot to give charity to its pilgrims.  When she happened to have pain in her mouth, she received a toothbrush made of a willow twig from a pilgrim.  As she rinsed her mouth with it, the pain was gone.  The temple sells toothpicks as talismans that will take away the pain.

Address: 1586 Bessho, Chichibu, Saitama 368-0054

Phone: 0494-23-0943

Koigakubo Station

Address: 1 Chome Tokura, Kokubunji, Tokyo 185-0003

Phone: 042-321-1341