Virtual Okitama 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #7 Enpuku-ji Temple

 

     Ayukai Shigehira lived in Takadama Village, developed an alluvial fan, and built a fortress at the foot of it.  He called his family Takadama.  The Takadama Family ruled Takadama Village for 4 generations from the 1530's to the 1560's.  Enpuku-ji Temple was their family temple.

     The temple's main deity, the gilt bronze statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, is the oldest gilt bronze Buddhist image in Yamagata Prefecture.  The statue is supposed to have been made at the end of the 7th century.  Its history is, however, not recorded.

     Okitama County first appeared in a document on January 3rd, 669.  Its county government office is supposed to have been located in today's Nagai City.  All in all, the Arya Avalokitesvara statue could have been brought to Ideha Province not long after the birth of the county presumably as a present for a local powerful family.  It is unknown whether the statue stayed in Okitama County since those days or was moved to Takadama Village later.

Address: 1207-1 Takadama, Shirataka, Nishiokitama District, Yamagata 992-0773

Phone: 0238-85-5295