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

 

     Kaneko Hisazaemon and Kosukegawa Jiroemon first supported the 1679 Peasant Revolts but, after driving their rival samurai away, they betrayed the peasants.  They killed the peasants' leaders brutally.  Wakoin was 32 years old at the time, and was brutally executed by stone-filled siege, Jintaro and Jinnojo were beheaded, and other 6 leaders were crucified.  Nizaemon, the ringleader, was killed in the mountains of Hiyama  (Hiyama, Noshiro, Akita 016-0151).

     Hisazamon and his son Sajibe, and Jiroemon's son, Saemon, enshrined the image of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, in the same precincts of the #6 deity of the Yashima Domain 33 Kannon Pilgrimage on September 21st, 1711.  That means the pilgrimage was organized after 1711, supported by the lord of the domain, Ikoma Chikanao (1691-1753).  They might be afraid of going to hell. 

     The Arya Avalokitesvara image was cast on September 21st, 1711, in Shiokaraden Showatoyokawaryuge, Katagami, Akita 018-1415, by a metalworker from Tsuruoka, Shonai Domai, at the request of Sajibe and Saemon, who were then senior vassals of the Yashima Domain, under the direction of retired priest Genshin and Monk Jyoyakubo of Nembutsu-do Hall in Mount Haguro.  The leader of the monks was Priest Koben, who was the 60th head priest of Fukuo-ji Temple, and who was the head of the Chokai Shugendo School.

     In 1897, the temple suffered an unfortunate robbery and lost the image's head.  In 1901, the head was recast, restoring the image to its original appearance.

     According to the information when the Yashima Domain 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized, Kawashirodai Kannon was Arya Avalokitesvara, but they enshrines the Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja image, which is also called the Great Compassionate Avalokitesvara, as it has a thousand arms and an eye in each hand that saves all the people.  It is religiously clear that Arya Avalokitesvara can metamorphose into other types to save people, but.....

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