Virtual Yashima Domain 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Kannon-do Hall

 

     A private house is in Koitado-97 Yashimamachi Kawabe, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0412, where a Kannon-do hall is supposed to have been located.  Presumably, Sozaemon lived in the private lot, enshrining a Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja image, when Yashima 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized.

     Or, as Koitado Shrine is across a street from Koitado-97, the shrine could have been a Kannon-do hall before Haibutsu Kishaku (literally "abolish Buddhism and destroy Shakamuni”) was executed in many parts of Japan in the process of the Meiji Restoration.  Or could Inari Shrine or Yama Shrine in Koitado have something to do with the Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja image?

     The annual rice tax collected from within the Yashima Domain was mostly sent through Koyoshi River to Honjo Port and converted into money.  The storehouses for the rice tax were set up in Koitado Village, along Koyoshi River at the northern end of the domain.  Since it was far more advantageous to transport rice by boat than by land route using horse and carts, it was natural that storehouses were built in the village, which had the only boat port within the domain, and where riverboats from Honjo Port arrived.

     6 farming families, 3 in Koitado Village and 3 in Iwasaka Village, were commissioned to set up rice storehouses.  Of the 6 rice storehouses, the one which belonged to Iwasaka Gohei still exists as a barn near Inari Shrine.

Address: Koitado-97 Yashimamachi Kawabe, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0412

Koitado Shrine

Address: Koitado-101-1 Yashimamachi Kawabe, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0412

Inari Shrine

Address: Koitado-174 Yashimamachi Kawabe, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0412

Yama Shrine

Address: Koitado Yashimamachi Kawabe, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0412

Honjo Port

Address: Mizubayashi, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0885