Virtual Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #1 Joshin-in Temple

 

     Joshin-in Temple’s precincts have Hyakutai Kannon-do Hall, literally 100 Avalokitesvara Hall.  It is one of the 3 sazae-do halls in Japan along with Sanso-do Hall in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, and the main hall of Sogen-ji Temple in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture.  They are called sazae-do because the inside of the hall has a spiral structure and the appearance resembles a turban shell.  The hall looks two-storied but its inside is three-floored.  The hall was built to pray for the comfort of the deceased of Mt. Asama's eruption in 1783.  Priest Gen'ei of Joshin-in Temple made up his mind to build the hall and finished it in 1788.  The hall enshrines 100 Avalokitesvara statues: the copies of the deities of Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage are on the first floor, those of the Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage are on the second floor, and those of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage are on the third floor.  It's surprising that he gathered 100 Avalokitesvara statues in 4 years when mass production or a 3-D printer was far beyond imagination.  Sixty of them were donated from Edo, including two from the Yoshiwara Red-light District.  Not only the owners of brothels but also prostitutes donated.

     Sanso-do Hall of Rakan-ji Temple in Itsutsume, Honjo, Musashi Province, present-day Oshima, Koto Ward, Tokyo, is said to have been the first case of a sazae-do hall. According to the New Topography and Chronology of Musashi Province, which was compiled by Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) at the beginning of the 19th century, Zosen planned to build Sanso-do Hall.  Joyo followed his will and completed it.  According to the Edo Sights Guidebook it was finished in 1741, but the Records of Edo Obaku Chan Temples says that it was completed in 1780 by Eicho, who followed their will.

     Rakan-ji Temple's Sanso-do Hall had a three-layer structure, and 100 Avalokitesvara were enshrined in total.  The structure was such that you walk up the slope inside the hall in a clockwise direction, and then descend on another set of stairs.  Sanso-do Hall of Rakan-ji Temple was the first architectural style to be standardized.  The hall was so popular that Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) drew it in their woodblock prints.  It was listed as the 8th in the Edo Famous Historic Sites and Sights Ranking.  The pictures show that the interior has three layers, but the exterior has two layers.  The bottom layer was about 9 meters wide, and the upper layer was about 5.4 meters wide, with a tented four-sided roof.

     After being severely damaged in the Ansei-Edo Earthquake on October 2nd, 1855, the hall was demolished around 1875.  A plan to rebuild it was not realized.  The enshrined Avalokitesvara statues were sold to a hardware store, excluding the 5 that were rescued by Takamura Koun (1852-1934), a sculptor and a professor of Tokyo School of Fine Arts.  Rakan-ji Temple was moved to its present place and was renamed Gohyaku-Rakan-ji.

Address: 597 Kodamacho Kodaira, Honjo, Saitama 367-0214

Phone: 0495-72-6742

Gohyaku Rakanji Temple

Address: 3 Chome-20-11 Shimomeguro, Meguro City, Tokyo 153-0064

Phone: 03-3792-6751