Virtual Toshima 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Kongo-ji Temple

 

     Toshima 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized in the Edo Period and has lost all its member temples but #22.

     Kongo-ji Temple was founded in 1624.

     The temple has double main deities: a Ksitigarbha statue and a statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, which is exhibited annually on July 17th.

     The Ksitigarbha statue was carved by Mokujiki Myoman.  He avoided eating anything cooked and ate porridge of buckwheat and starch.  He wore an unlined kimono even in winter.  He didn't sleep under a roof.

     When he visited Kongo-ji Temple in 1699, smallpox spread and killed 34 children in  Nakauta alone.  He carved his first Buddhist image in the temple.  Later, he traveled around Japan and carved more than 2,000 Buddhist images, and died at the age of 93.

     Ryozui was a monk in Raiko-ji Temple in Chikugo Province.  One night, Avalokitesvara appeared in his dream and told him to go to Hokkaido, where Buddhist enlightenment activities hadn't spread wide enough or deep enough, to comfort and relieve people there, and to make them happy, and said, "I will go there first and wait for you."  When he arrived at Esashi, he heard of a wood which had been washed ashore in Moshiri and which was kept by Atsuya Shichiemon.  It glimmered in lapis lazuli at night.  Ryozui realized that the wood was the Avalokitesvara who was waiting for him, and carved an Arya Avalokitesvara statue out of it.   He had never carved any Buddhist images before but Arya Avalokitesvara appeared out of the wood as if it undressed itself.

Address: 168 Nakautacho, Esashi, Hiyama District, Hokkaido 043-0034

Phone: 0139-52-0645