Virtual Kubota Castle Town 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #33 Kimyo-ji Temple

 

     Kimyo-ji Temple was founded in 1657 by Priest Shogaku Choon as a base for the propagation of the Dansei school of Pure Land Buddhism.

     In 1682, Satake Yoshizumi (1637-1703), the 3rd lord of the Kubota Domain, built Toshogu, the mausoleum of the Tokugawa Clan in the precincts of Tentoku-ji Temple.  He moved the mausoleum to Yabase Village in 1700.  There, Toshogu used to be located where Yabase Sports Park is.  He planned to found Juryo-in Temple as its shrine temple.  As the foundation of new temples was prohibited by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1631, he renamed Kimyo-ji to Ijo-in and made it the branch of Juryo-in Temple.  Kimyo-ji Temple, or Ijo-in Temple, converted to the Tiantai Sect at that time.  Juryo-in Temple was abolished after the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order was issued by the Meiji Restoration Government in 1868.  Ijo-in Temple returned to Kimyo-ji Temple.

     The temple’s main deity is a triad of Avalokitesvara in the center, Mahavairocana on the right, and Amitabha on the left, which is said to be descended from that of Yokokawa-Chu-do Hall in Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hiei.

     The temple is the 33rd and last temple of the Kubota Castle Town 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.  According to the Akita Prefecture Religious Corporation Directory as of January 2017, the temple belongs to Haguro-san Shugen Honshu, or Haguro Sect of Shugendo, whose head temple is Kotaku-ji Temple, which is said to have been founded by Prince Hachiko (542–641).  After the assassination of his father in 592, Hachiko fled north along the western seacoast of Honshu.  He came ashore in Ideha Province and invested the rest of his life in religious pursuits in The Three Mountains of Ideha: Mt. Haguro, Mt. Gassan, and Mt. Yudono.  There, the prince took good care of people and relieved many of their sufferings.

     Legend has it that Kimyo-ji Temple's precincts have the grave of Ishida Mitsunari (1560-1600), who was, officially speaking, beheaded in Kyoto after he was defeated by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Battle of Sekigahara on September 15th, 1600.  After execution, his head, severed from his body, was placed on a stand for all the people in Kyoto to see.  His remains were buried at Sangen-in, a branch of the Daitoku-ji Temple, Kyoto.  Meanwhile, according to local legend, after the defeat of the Western Army, Ishida Mitsunari fled to his own territory in Omi Province (present-day Shiga Prefecture), and it was his body double who was captured.  Mitsunari then hid himself at Amida-ji Temple, a Pure Land Buddhism temple in Kyoto, where he was ordained under the Priest Dansei and called himself Shogaku Choon.  He then sought refuge with Satake Yoshinobu, who had been demoted from Hitachi Province to Akita in Dewa Province, and moved to the area.  Yoshinobu invited a famous monk from Chion-in Temple in Kyoto, built a vast temple measuring about 126 meters from east to west and about 137 meters from north to south.  This is said to be Kimyo-ji Temple.  There are egg-shaped stone towers at the entrance to this temple, and one of them with the inscription "Shogaku Choon Shonin, Year 3 of the Horeki Era" is said to be the grave of Mitsunari.  Choon, also known as Mokujiki Shonin, is said to have entered his grave while still alive in 1633 by ringing a gong, leaving behind the instruction to consider him dead when the gong sound stopped.

Address: 2 Chome-3-37 Yabasehoncho, Akita, 010-0973

Phone: 0188239340

Yabase Sports Park

Address: 1-1 Yabaseundokoen, Akita, 010-0974

Phone: 018-888-5611

Tentoku-ji Temple

Address: 10-1 Izumimitakene, Akita, 010-0812

Phone: 018-868-1700

Kotaku-ji Temple

Address: Touge-232 Haguromachi TougeTsuruoka, Yamagata 997-0211

Yokawa Main Hall, Enryaku-ji

Address: 4225 Sakamotohonmachi, Otsu, Shiga 520-0116

Phone: 077-578-0830

Daitoku-ji Sangen-in Temple

Address: 76 Murasakino Daitokujicho, Kita Ward, Kyoto, 603-8231

Phone: 075-492-5039

Amida-ji Temple

Address: 14 Tsuruyamacho, Kamigyo Ward, Kydoto 602-0802

Phone: 075-231-3538