Virtual Saitama City Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #31 Miyagayato-Kannon-do Hall

 

     Shokoku-in Temple was founded by Priest Ryusei (?-1693) in Miyagayato Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province, sometime between 1655 and 1658.  Its main deity was Acalanatha.  The precincts had a Kannon-do hall with Horse-Headed Hayagriva enshrined.  It is unknown whether the hall had been built before the foundation of Shokoku-in Temple or vice versa.  The temple was abolished after the Meiji Restoration, with Acalanatha and Horse-Headed Hayagriva left behind.

     The village name Miyagayato literally means Shrine's Valley.  The locals believe Shrine refers to Hikawa Shrine in Omiya.  As the Ayase River runs through the valley, rice fields were developed quite early.  The valley and its rice fields could have been the shrine's manor.

     What is Hikawa Shrine?

     In Izumo Province, today's Shimane Peninsula used to be an island in the Jomon Period (BC 14000-BC 10th century).  The Hi River filled the shallows between the Old Shimane Island and Honshu, and the Izumo Plain was formed about 10,000 years ago.  Rice growing arrived, and people there accumulated experience to change marshes and swamps into rice fields.  With this experience, Etakehi arrived at Musashi Province.  There, he or his offspring founded Hikawa Shrine, namely Hi River Shrine, on the Omiya Plateau.  Presumably, he tried to control the floods of the Iruma River in the west, the Ayase River in the middle, and the Ara River in the east of the plateau.

Address: 3 Chome-178 Miyagayato, Minuma Ward, Saitama, 337-0011

Hikawa Shrine

Address: 1-407 Takahanacho, Omiya Ward, Saitama 330-0803

Phone: 048-641-0137