Virtual Shonai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #31 Churen-ji Temple

 

     Mount Yudono was the sacred place for northern foreigners since prehistoric days.

     Prince Hachiko (542–641) was the 3rd son of Emperor Hatsusebe (553-592).  When the emperor was assassinated by Soga Umako (551-626), the prince fled north.  There, he entered the Three Mountains of Ideha: Mt. Haguro, Mt. Gassan, and Mt. Yudono.  He invested the rest of his life in religious pursuits there.  Yudonosan Shrine was founded in 593.

     Churen-ji Temple was founded in 833 as one of the oldest shrine temples of Mount Yudono.

     In 733, Ideha Fortress was moved from the estuary of Mogami River to that of Omono River.  Later, the fortress was called Akita Fortress, and Ideha Provincial Government office was also moved to Akita Fortress.  However, the rebellions of the northern foreigners became fierce and the office was moved back to the estuary of Mogami River, Kinowa Fortress.  Yoneshiro River and further north was the land of the northern foreigners.  A kind of the Cold War era started.  The Imperial Court gave up advancing north.  In Ideha Province, instead, Japanization was deepened.  The holy places of ex-northern foreigners became the holy places of Shinto and Buddhism.

     Mount Yudono used to be prohibited to women, and Churen-ji Temple was along the religious boundary.  In those days, women were to pray to the mountain from the temple.

     Priest Tosui composed a plausible Buddhist tanka poem:

Whoever makes a wish to the opposite bank

Would never fail to be saved

By the salvation net of Buddha.

     After the Gods and Buddhas separation Order was issued by the Meiji Restoration Government in 1868, the Three Mountains of Dewa (Mt. Haguro, Mt. Gassan, and Mt. Yudono) became shrines, and Churen-ji Temple's role as a pilgrimage site for women was rapidly lost.  Not only the temple itself but also the surrounding lodgings gradually became obsolete.  Even the chief priest left the temple, and it became “a broken temple”.

     In 1951, Atsushi Mori (1912-1989), a novelist, stayed at Chuuren-ji Temple.  More than 20 years later, in 1974, Mori won the 70th Akutagawa Prize for his novel Gassan, which is set in Churen-ji Temple and its temple town, Shichigosankake.  This novel was later adapted into a suite with the same name, lyrics and music by Arai Mitsuru (1946-2021), in 1976 and a movie directed by Murano Tetsutaro (1929-2020) in 1978.  The temple became popular and was re-evaluated.  In the French version Michelin Green Guide Japan, which was published on March 16th, 2009, Churen-ji Temple received an overall rating of two stars (a place you should take a detour to if you're nearby).  On February 25th, 2009, the Shichigosankake area was severely damaged by a landslide.  Churen-ji Temple wasn't hard hit, but all the houses hit by the landslide were demolished by December of the same year.  The disaster victim households left the village, with only one exception.  The Shichigosankake village is also the filming location for the movie Departures, directed by Takita Yojiro (1955-) in 2008.  The two private houses used for filming suffered only minor damage from the landslide, and they are preserved on site.

Address: Nakadai 92-1 Oami, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-0531

Phone: 0235-54-6536

Mount Yudono

Address: Shizu, Nishikawa, Nishimurayama District, Yamagata 990-0734