Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     Mt. Asama erupted on July 8th, 1783.  Its pyroclastic flows, landslides, volcanic ashes, and the floods of the Azuma River caused by them killed more than 1,400 people in Kozuke Province alone.  Even in Kodama County, Musashi Province, a gigantic quantity of volcanic ashes covered fields so thick that they buried their original shapes and borders.  As the Azuma River is a branch of the Tone River, muddy water blanketed its paddy fields.

     The volcano's devastation exacerbated what was already known as the Great Tenmei Famine, which had started in 1782.  An additional 20,000 more deaths were caused by the famine.  The population of Japan decreased by 920,000 across Japan between 1780 and 1786.

     In the basins of the Azuma and Tone Rivers, which were severely damaged by the Tenmei mudflows, there are memorial monuments for the deceased. Before 2021, more than 140 memorial monuments and disaster monuments have been found in the 4 prefectures of Gunma, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Nagano according to the Yamba Tenmei Mudflow Museum.

     In Kodama County, the Kodama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized to pray for the comfort of the deceased in the other world.