Virtual Old Mutsu 33 Kannon Pigrimage #20 Aoya-Kannon-do Hall

 

     It is unknown when Aoya-Kannon-do Hall was founded along Hirose River, which runs west through Kitakami Mountains and meets Kitakami River.  The temple's sango is Otoishi-zan.  Otoishi Shrine was founded nearby in 811, when the Old Mutsu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized.  Otoishi Gongen-sha Shrine was founded nearby sometime between 848 and 850.  Ishi means stone, and there are several stones or rocks which give out metallic sounds.  Obviously, the area was a holy place with stones or rocks as objects of worship since northern foreigners' days.

     As Aoya-Kannon-do Hall enshrines Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, as #20 deity of the Old Mutsu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, it must have been founded before 811.

     This type of amalgamation and syncretism of northern foreigners' holy places, Shinto, and Buddhism was often the case in the Old Akita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.  I wonder how many types of Avalokitesvara-related holy places the Old Mutsu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage had.

     Legend has it the rocks resounded with one another depending on the circumstances.  When Fujiwara Hidehira (1122-1187) built Karuishi Fortress, he tried to use rocks around the shrines but the rocks resounded one another.  Hidehira's men failed to move even one.  The legend implies that the locals in the area weren't happy with the rule of the Northern Fujiwara Clan.

     The precincts of Otoishi Shrine have a Buddhist stone monument dated October 2nd, 1361, when the Nanbu Family split into the side of the Southern Court and the side of the Northern Court.  It isn't clear which side the area belonged to.  Samurai often switched sides in those days.  At the end of the Warring States Period, Karuishi Jihei was based in the fortress.

     How many times did the rocks resound with one another in a time when people fought battle after battle?

Address: Aoya-183 Esashiku Hirose, Oshu, Iwate 023-1133

Otoishi Shrine

Address: Esashiku Hirose, Oshu, Iwate 023-1133

phone: 0197-36-3353

Otoishi Gongen-sha Shrine

Address: 768W+8G, Oshu, Iwate 023-1133

Karuishi Fortress Ruins

Address: Esashiku Hirose, Oshu, Iwate 023-1133