Virtrual Shinobu Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Kannon-in Temple

 

     The place name "Sone" often refers to a natural levee in a flood plain. 

     The Kurohama Shell Mound is just 10 kilometers south from Nakasone, and is located on the Omiya Plateau in the eastern part of Saitama Prefecture.  During the early to middle Jomon period, about 4000 to 2500 BC, the Tokyo Bay was far bigger and the plateau was a peninsula sticking out into the sea.  The Old Tone and Old Ara Rivers made the sea into marshes and then into swamps.  On a natural levee in a swamp, Nakasone Village was developed presumably by the immigrants from Suwa County, Shinano Province.  They invited or brought the God Takeminakata from Suwa.  Takeminakata has been worshiped as a god of wind, water and agriculture.  As Suwa Shrine and Kannon-in Temple stand side by side in Nakasone, the temple might have been founded as the shrine temple of Suwa Shrine.

Address: 1402 Kitanakasone, Kuki, Saitama 346-0036

Suwa Shrine

Address: 1905-3 Kitanakasone, Kuki, Saitama 346-0036

Phone: 0480-85-3848

Kurohama Shell Mound

Address: 1894 Kurohama, Hasuda, Saitama 349-0101