Virtual Kesen 33 Kannon Pigrimage #18 Sakamoto-do Hall

 

     The upper reaches of the Sakamoto River have many caves.  In one of them in Futanagi, an image of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, was enshrined and was called Iwaya Kannon, namely Cave Avalokitesvara.  After the Meiji Restoration, or in 1902 precisely, Iwaya Kannon was renamed Iwaya Shrine.

     When the road across Akabane Pass was modernized, Iwaya Shrine was moved to its present place.  The road was renovated as the National Highway Route 340 after 1975, and finally the Akabane Tunnel was cut under the pass in 1992.  A few traces of holy caves are left.

     The Sumita Area has over 100 caves.  In larger ones such as Zao (Jao), Komatsu, and Wakishimizu Caves, the remains of Jomon Culture people have been found.  How about smaller ones?  Presumably, they could have been used for a kind of sepulture without burying bodies under the ground like caves in Kamakura, Miura Peninsula, and Matsushima. 

     Post-Hokkaido-style thin Jomon earthenware started from today's Sapporo area. The style spread to the southern part of Sakhalin and Kunashir Island in the north and to the Tohoku Region in Honshu in the south, except the southern Pacific coast in today's Iwate Prefecture.  That is, those who lived in Zao (Jao), Komatsu, and Wakishimizu Caves could have been different from "northern foreigners" culturally or even ethnically.

Address: Futanagi-4 Kamiarisu, Sumita, Kesen District, Iwate 029-2501

Rokan-do Cave

Address: Tsuchikura-298-81 Kamiarisu, Sumita, Kesen District, Iwate 029-2501

Phone: 0192-48-2756

Zao (Jao) Cave Remains

Address: Kamiarisu, Sumita, Kesen District, Iwate 029-2501

Komatsu Cave

Address: Kamiarisu, Sumita, Kesen District, Iwate 029-2501

Wakishimizu Cave

Address: Setamai, Sumita, Kesen District, Iwate 029-2501