Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #24 Zenko-ji Temple

     Nanjo Tsunesato lived in Atsuta, Owari Province.  His 3rd son started his Buddhist training at the age of 6.  He became a monk, Teison (?-1210), at the age of 14.  He stayed in Jimoku-ji Temple for 32 years till 1194, when he was 64 years old.  One night, he dreamed of a divine message to visit Zenko-ji Temple in Shinano Prefecture.  He visited the temple and copied the temple's main deity.  He carried the copied Buddhist image in a wooden box on his shoulder and traveled from province to province.  More than a year later, he arrived at the Iruma River.  As there was no ferry those days, he had trouble crossing the river.  He managed to walk across the river, put the box down, and had a rest.  After a while, he tried to shoulder the box, but it didn't budge an inch.  Teison realized that fate meant for this to happen, and stayed there.  He built a hermitage and enshrined the copied image in it.

     In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved to Edo.  The city flourished and its population increased.  Those who couldn't travel to Zenko-ji Temple in Shinano Province visited the copied Buddhist image in Kawaguchi, and the pilgrimage to the temple became very popular.  Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) depicted the temple.

Why is the temple located on the Ara River today?

     In the Jomon Period, the Omiya Plateau used to be a peninsula which stuck out into the sea.  The Old Watarase River ran along the eastern side of the peninsula, and the Ara River (1) ran along the western side of the peninsula.  In the meanwhile, the ongoing process of the Kanto Plain's tectonic extension continued and the plain's central region gradually sank.  Finally, the Ara River (2) broke the peninsula around today's Kazo City to the east.  The river and its alluvium made the peninsula a triangle plateau in the Kanto Plain.  The watercourse of the Ara River (1) became the Iruma River, at which Teison arrived.  Ina Tadaharu (1606-1653) made the Ara River (2) flow into the Iruma River in 1629.  Since then, the watercourse became the Ara River (3).  For your information, after the modernization, the Ara River (4) was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century.  The change of the watercourse separated the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #23 Kannon-ji Temple and the #24 Zenko-ji Temple across the Ara River (4).

Address: 1-29 Funatocho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0013

Phone: 048-222-2124

Jimoku-ji Temple

Address: Higashimonzen-24 Jimokuji, Ama, Aichi 490-1111

Phone: 0524423076