Virtual Saitama City Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #14 Nakao-do Hall

 

     It is unknown when Nakao-do hall was founded to enshrine Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha.  Its precincts have a moon-worship-like itabi dated 1512, which doesn't tell the hall is older than the itabi.

     In Japan, associations were organized to religiously appreciate the specific phase of the moon.  Religiously popular phases were, the thirteenth night, the fourteenth night, the fifteenth night (the full moon night), the sixteenth night, the seventeenth night, the eighteenth night, the nineteenth night, the twentieth night, the twenty-first night, the twenty-second night, and the twenty-third night.  Their participants ate and drank together, chanted a sutra or a prayer to the Buddha, prayed to the moon, and drove away evil spirits.  Some associations built stone monuments.  The oldest example of those associations was recorded in Muromachi Period (1336-1573), and the oldest itabi dates back to 1441.  The associations for the sixteenth night were mainly organized in the northern part of the Kanto Region: Shimotsuke, Kozuke, and Hitachi Provinces.

     While itabi were built as graves of individual samurai in Kamakura Period (1185-1333), the  moon-related itabi were built by associations, or by plural ordinary people.

     The hall is part of Komagata Public Hall and has a graveyard around it.

Komagata Public Hall

Address: 1389 Nakao, Midori Ward, Saitama, 336-0932