Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Zuiun-ji Temple

 

     An Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha image was enshrined at the top of Mt. Nagate in 1215.  In the Edo Period, it was moved to its present place.  As Zuiun-ji Temple has a stone monument for Mount Iide, the image might have had something to do with the mountain worship of Mount Iide.

     Iidesan Shrine was founded in 652, when Priest Zhidao, who came from China, climbed to the top of Mt. Iide and named the mountain Iide.  He also likened the Iide mountain ranges to the five gods, and named them Ichi-oji, Ni-oji, San-oji, Shi-oji, and Go-oji.

     In the areas around Mount Iide, it was believed that the dead ascend to the sky and that their ancestors watch over them from the high points of Mount Iide.  A visit to Mount Iide was a rite of passage into adulthood for the local residents, and it was customary for boys to climb Mount Iide when they reached the age of 13 to 15.

     After the Meiji Restoration, the abolition of feudal domains and establishment of prefectures was implemented in 1871, and Higashikanbara District, which had been part of Aizu, was separated from Fukushima Prefecture, and Iidesan Sanctuary Shrine was incorporated into Mikawa Village (currently Aga Town), Higashikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture.  However, Ichinoki Village (present-day Kitakata City), Yama District, where the Iidesan Entrance Shrine is located, objected to this, insisting,  "Iidesan Shrine, which includes the Sanctuary Shrine and the Entrance Shrine is a part of Ichinoki Village."  In the end, in 1907, a ruling by the Department of the Interior made the pilgrimage route to Mount Iide the land of Ichinoki Village.  The current irregularly shaped borders among Fukushima, Niigata, and Yamagata Prefectures originate from this.

     Fukushima Prefecture includes the approximately 7.5 kilometers mountain trail from Mt. Mikuni, which literally means Three Provinces, and which is the topographical boundary between the three prefectures, through Mount Iide to the vicinity of Onishi-hut to the west of Peak Onishi, and the precincts of the shrine at the summit of Mount Iide.  Of this, the length is about 4 kilometers from Mt. Mikuni to Omaezaka but the width is about 91 centimeters, and the maximum width around the summit of Mount Iide and Iidesan Shrine is about 300 meters.

Address: 1405 Hagyu, Iide, Nishiokitama District, Yamagata 999-0602

Phone: 0238-72-3004

Iidesan Shrine

Address: Yamatomachi Ichinoki, Kitakata, Fukushima 969-4108