Virtual Saitama City Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Ainoya-do Hall

 

     Kizaki Village is supposed to have been developed in the Warring States Period in Adachi County, Musashi Province.  It is unknown when a hall was built to enshrine Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.   Shofuku-ji Temple is just a kilometer west-south-west in the same village.  Both Shofuku-ji Temple and Ainoya-do Hall have their own graveyard.  The Ainoya locals might have needed their own graveyard.  The place name Ainoya literally means Meeting Valley.  The hall's Buddhist tanka poem suggests what Ainoya Hamlet looked like:

I looked around a hilly village

To visit Ainoya-do Hall in Kizaki

And found blessing water in a deep valley.

Address: 7 Chome-15-10 Kamikizaki, Urawa Ward, Saitama, 330-0071