Virtual Old Akita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #30 Nanakura Shrine

 

     Mt. Nanakura, namely 7 Podiums, has 7 peaks, and was a holy place since prehistoric days.  7 peaks run from north to south, and the mountain ridge is the border between 2 types of vegetation.  The cold winds from the Sea of Japan blow against its east side, whose vegetation has low trees of high mountains with much snow, while the west side has broad-leaved forests.  The contrast might have looked mystical to the primitive local northern foreigners.

     In 659, Abe Hirafu arrived at Akuta (Akita), Nushiro (Noshiro), and Shishiriko.  Hannyain Eisen (1714-1782), the priest of Shichiza Shrine during the Edo period, argued Shishiriko was Tsuzureko, Kitaakita City, Akita Prefecture.  He advocated that Abe Hirafu traveled up the Yoneshiro River and founded Nanakura Shrine.

     In Japanese mythology, the Seven Generations of the Age of the Gods are the seven generations of goddesses/gods that emerged after the formation of heaven and earth.  Eisen even claimed that the 7 goddesses/gods arrived at the 7 peaks of Mt. Nanakura.

     For your information, the Seven Generations of the Age of the Gods are:

1 Kuninotokotachi

2 Toyo-kumono-no-kami

3 Uhijini

4 Tsunuguhi

5 Otonoji

6 Omodaru

7 Izanagi

     Eisen was born as the second son of an old Shinto shrine family, Hoshakuin, in Tsuzureko Village (now Tsuzureko, Kitaakita City, Akita Prefecture), Hinai County, Dewa Province.  The shrine is today's Tsuzuruko Shrine.  Eisen entered Shugendo mountain ascetic at the age of 13, and, at the age of 14, he decided to abstain from drinking, eating meat, and having sex for the rest of his life.  By the time he was in his early 20's, he actively participated in training not only in Shugendo, but also Confucianism and Caodong Chan Buddhism.

     In 1740, he entered Ominesan-ji Temple, the head temple of Shugendo mountain ascetism, in Yoshino, Yamato Province.  After practicing in the mountain, he studied Analects of Confucius, Yi Jing, the Annotated Book of Nihon Shoki, and Oharae no Kotoba under Matsuoka Joan in Kyoto.  After returning to Dewa Province, he left his parents' house, built a hermitage nearby, named it Kongo-an, and began living alone.  He left the province in 1746, and visited the Tozan School Shugendo temples in Yamagata.  In the following year, he left Yamagata, visited Aizu and Edo, and returned.  From 1747 onwards, he held rites throughout northern Akita and transmitted the fruits of his training to his followers.  He held the 1050th anniversary of the death of En Ozunu (634-701) at Mount Nanakura Tenjin-gu Shrine.  In 1751, he climbed the sacred mountain of Mount Hiko in Buzen Province, Kyushu.  After practicing, he traveled from Kyoto to Ise and Edo before returning to Dewa Province.

     In 1764, he gathered nearby Shintoists at Nanakura Shrine and held rituals for 7 days.  Taking the opportunity, he released Nanakura-yama Tenjin Engi, or Mount Nanakura's Gods History.  This described Mount Nanakura as a sacred place where the Seven Generations of the Age of the Gods were enshrined, and also interpreted Shishiriko, which is described in the Nihon Shoki as the place where Abe Hirafu arrived.  Hirafu was claimed to have founded Nanakura Shrine.  Eisen considered Nanakura Shrine to be a sacred place comparable to Ise Shrine.  Since then, he held the rituals annually.  Eisen also gathered religious figures along Yoneshiro River to give lectures on Shugendo mountain ascetic, Confucianism, and Shintoism.  In addition, he prayed for rain for farmers and taught them the latest pest control method, the lubrication.

     In Japan, the lubrication  was discovered in 1670.  In this method, oil is first poured into the rice field to form a film on the surface of the water.  Next, remove the pests by brushing away rice plants with bamboo leaves.  When insects fall, the oil sticks to their bodies, blocking their spiracles and suffocating them to death.  Whale oil was mainly used, but vegetable oils such as rapeseed oil were also used.  This technique was discovered by chance in Chikuzen Province, which was located just west of Buzen Province, where Mount Hiko was located, and spread throughout Japan.

     After the age of 60, Eisen devoted himself to writing.  First, he wrote an autobiography called Hotsugan Kinen-roku, namely Resolution Chronicle.   Religious books such as Shugendo 18 Items to Call Attention, Meat Eating Taboo Manual, and other religious writings and essays.  He died in 1782 at the age of 70.

     Generally, Shishiriko is supposed to have been somewhere in the north of Nushiro along the Sea of Japan.  If Hirafu had sailed upstream along the Yoneshiro River as Eisen believed, then he might have realized Mishihashi had already advanced inland along the river to secure a base to trade furs and pelts.  Hirafu could have chased Mishihasi to secure naval superiority along the coast of the Sea of Japan, and what?  No record was kept that there was a battle inland.

     The tenson korin is Japanese mythology that goddesses and gods descended from Heaven to Japan.  Generally, the mythology is believed to have reflected the fact that Japanese ancestors came from the continent especially through Korea Peninsula.  Did Eisen know there used to be the-Sea-of-Japan route between the continent and Japanese Archipelagos?  Or did he only show favoritism toward his hometown?

     Anyway, Urabe Yasumasa presented an Avalokitesvara image to the shrine or to the mountain about 7 centuries before Eisen was born.  The image had been lost before the Edo Period.

Address: Tenjinmichigami-67 Futatsuimachi Kotsunagi, Noshiro, Akita 018-3102

Phone: 0185-73-5308