Virtual New Mutsu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #31 Shofuku-ji Temple

 

     A Seven-Faced Avalokitesvara iron image was enshrined at the foot of Mt. Nanashigure in 728.  The image is supposed to have been part of a kakebotoke with Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha.

     A kakebotoke was a Buddhist image on the top of a mirror.  In Shinto, a native Japanese religion, a mirror was an object of worship.  Under the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism, we started engraving a petroglyph of a Buddhist image on a bronze mirror in the 10th century.  Later, those images became gorgeous and three-dimensional.  They were made till the end of the Edo Period, but many of them were discarded after the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order was issued by the Meiji Restoration Government in 1868.

     In 1919, Monk Nangoku-in, who took care of the image, left Buddhist priesthood, and the image was moved to Shofuku-ji Temple, with its hall left in the precincts of Shirasaka-Hachiman-gu Shrine.

     Shofuku-ji Temple was founded in 1596 by the Kita Family.

     Ishikawa Takanobu (1495-1571), who was a brother of Nanbu Yasunobu (1493-1541), built Terada Fortress in the hill behind Shofuku-ji Temple.  In 1582, Kita Chikakazu, a vassal of the Nanbu Family, was based in the fortress.  In 1655, the 4th head of the Kita Family, Iwamatsu, died young with no heir.  The family line died out, and the family's vassal, Sasaki Rokusuke, left 4-koku-worth land to Shofuku-ji Temple, ordered the temple to hold memorial services forever, and committed suicide upon the death of Iwamatsu.

Address: Dai 20 Chiwari-27 Nishineterada, Hachimantai, Iwate 028-7401

Phone: 0195-77-2940

Shirasakahachimangu

Shirasakakannondo

Address: Dai 2 Chiwari−44, Nishineterada, Hachimantai, Iwate 028-7401

Terada Fortress Site

Address: Dai 19 Chiwari Nishineterada, Hachimantai, Iwate 028-7401