Virtual Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #25 Kyusho-ji Temple

 

     Once upon a time, a woman immorally became pregnant.  Villagers drove her away into a gorge of Kuna.  She gave birth to a baby girl in a cave there.  She lived in the cave with her daughter and died when the girl was 15 years old.  The daughter lamented her mother's sin, and hoped to found an Avalokitesvara hall so that her mother wouldn't be tortured in the other world.  The villagers were moved by her kindness and ashamed of what they had done to the mother and child, and founded a hall with a statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.

     His secular name was Yoshiyuki Tachibana. Born in Kyoto. He is also called a calligrapher.

     When he was 36, he entered the priesthood, studying and training under Ryogen (912-985).  After training in Mt. Kirishima in Hyuga Province and Mt. Sefuri in Chikuzen Province, he entered Mt. Shosha in Harima Province in 966.  He was supported by the provincial governor, Fujiwara Suetaka, and founded Engyo-ji Temple, one of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.  From his early Buddhist stages on, he always carried the Lotus Sutra with him, and inclined toward mountain asceticism.  He was said to have shown many miraculous powers during his lifetime.

     One day, Emperor Kazan (968-1008) was shutting himself up in Mt. Nachi, Kishu Province, after his abdication in 986.  The god of Kumano appeared in his dream, and advised him to revive the pilgrimage Priest Tokudo had organized.  The emperor found the 33 seals in Nakayama-dera Temple, and asked Priest Shoku (910-1007) in Engyo-ji Temple to cooperate.  The priest recommended Priest Butsugen in Eifuku-ji Temple instead.  With Butsugen’s guide, the retired emperor went on the pilgrimage to the 33 holy places, and even composed a tanka poem for each one.  That was the start of go-eika, Japanese tanka poem chants for pilgrims.  The 33 precincts were called the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     In Chichibu, Shoku was believed to have visited its Kannon Pilgrimage.  In Kyusho-ji Temple, he met Yamaraja in his dream and was given a stone pass with which anyone can go through Yamaraja's office without accusations.  Shoku left the pass in the temple.  Did the pass make it for the mother's judgement day in Yamaraja's office?

Address: 2315 Kuna, Chichibu, Saitama 368-0053

Phone: 0494-23-7309