Virtual Shonai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Enmei-ji Temple

 

     In Mt. Omori, there is a huge stone which has been worshiped as a god or a holy place on which a god descends.  When the Dewa Provincial Government office was moved from Akita to Kinowa Fortress in the 780's, building stone was cut off from the mountain.  The Imperial Army might have brought stone artisans from Oushiko Shrine in Harima Province, the artisans brought their god from the shrine and founded Oishi Shrine in the mountain supposedly to calm down the god of the mountain.  Enmei-ji Temple was founded as its shrine temple not long after the foundation of the shrine.  In the 1150's, Minamoto Yoriyoshi (988-1075) ordered the temple to make a prayer for victory in the Former Nine Years' War or the Early Nine Years' War, in which he fought against the Abe Clan in Mutsu Province from 1051 to 1063.

     Enmei-ji Temple seems to have been preferred by the samurai from the Kanto Region.  Its precincts have 23 itabi, which were the Kanto style gravestones preferred by the samurai there.

As Buddhism has come,

Even the huge harm of the huge stone

Has gone without a trace.

Address: Omoriyama-164 Oishi, Sakata, Yamagata 998-0802

Phone: 0234-94-2361

Oishi Shrine

Address: Omoriyama-160-1 Oishi, Sakata, Yamagata 998-0802

Oushiko Shrine

Address: Ooshiko-171 Amidacho, Takasago, Hyogo 676-0823

Phone: 079-447-1006