Kameda Domain 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     Ako-tsu Port was ruled by the Akotsu Family, who enjoyed good relations with the Ando Pirates.  The family built Akotsu Fortress on the top of the hill behind the port.

     The Akotsu Family was dismissed in 1600.  Tateoka Mitsushige (1547-1639) moved to the area in 1603, but was dismissed in 1622.  In 1623, Iwaki Yoshitaka (1609-1672) moved in.  He built Kameda Residence at the foot of the hill and developed the town at the foot of the residence.  In the 1980's, the fake castle tower and the fake main gate were built for the sake of sightseeing.  Ever since then, the site is called Kameda Castle, but there never was a castle in the Edo Period.  It is unclear if we can call Kamedamachi, or Kameda Town, a castle town.  Anyway, the town became the capital of the Kameda Domain.

     The Kameda Domain 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized after 1786, when Priest Zezan (1732-1811) built the gold-foiled wooden standing Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue in Chokoku-ji Temple.  Later, Endo Jihei from Hodooka Hamlet, Akata Village, Yuri County (today's Hodooka Akata, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0023), visited the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage and brought back the sand of the pilgrimage’s 33 member temples.  Sometime between 1786 and 1789, Zezan and Jihei chose 33 temples in the Kameda Domain and buried the sand from each of the 33 member temples of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage to corresponding precincts.

     Chokoku-ji Temple was founded in 1775 by Zezan, who might have brought a miniature Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue, which is said to have been carved out of the same wood from which the Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue of Hase-dera Temple in Kamakura was carved out.  The miniature statue is enshrined in the gold-foiled statue.

     Hase-dera Temple in Kamakura claims 2 Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statues were carved out of a camphor tree in Yamato Province in 721.  One was enshrined in Hase-dera Temple in the province, and the other was floated in the sea.  In 736, the floated statue was found in Miura Peninsula in Sagami Province and was enshrined in Hase-dera Temple in Kamakura in the same province.  Hase-dera Temple in Hase, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, says its Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue was carved out of the holy wood which was found in Takashima County, Omi Province, in 727.  Their dates and stories are inconsistent.

Both Chokoku-ji and Hase-dera utilizes the same Chinese-character notation, and we have more than 240 Chokoku-ji or Hase-dera Temples in Japan, and all of them enshrine Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha, and might have something to do directly or indirectly with Hase-dera Temple in Nara Prefecture.

Chokoku-ji Temple

Address: Uwadaomote-115 Akata, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0023

Phone: 0184-22-1349

Hase-dera Temple

Address: 731-1 Hase, Sakurai, Nara 633-0112

Phone: 0744-47-7001

Hase-dera Temple

Address: 3 Chome-11-2 Hase, Kamakura, Kanagawa 248-0016

Phone: 0467-22-6300