Virtual Sakai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #14 Shohoji Temple

 

     Reiki-zan Shoho-ji Temple was founded by Priest Ryoku as Mikuni-san Reiken-in Shoho-ji Temple in the 15th century.

     Emperor Go-Hanazono (1419-1471) deeply admired Ryoku, bestowed him with a purple robe, and ordered the 8th Shogun of Muromachi Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), to build a temple on the border of the 3 provinces of Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi.  Mikuni-san means the temple on the border of 3 provinces.  Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado (1442-1500) subsequently donated some land to the temple.  Presumably, the temple was burned down in 1615 during the Siege of Osaka.  The 13th priest, Nikkai (?-1642), revived the temple and the 16th priest, Kanro (?-1690), rebuilt the entire buildings.  During the management of the 29th priest, Senryo, the temple declined considerably.  The Great Tempo Famine from 1833 to 1837 might have damaged Sakai Town and the faith of its people.  The 30th priest, Josei (?-1839), worked to revitalize the temple, and the 31st priest, Kankei (?-1896), devoted himself to improving the temple's buildings.

     In modern times, its place name was Kuso-koji, Higashi 3-chome, Nakanomachi.  Kuso-koji means Nine Ships Alley.  In legendary times, Okinagatarashi (170?-269?), a legendary empress, was said to have made a military expedition to Silla in the Korean Peninsula.  A historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla) recorded 14 organized piracies by Wa, the Japanese kingdom, by the end of the 4th century, and Okinagatarashi’s expedition to Silla might have been one of those piracies.  Legend has it that when she returned to today's Osaka Bay, 9 warships were moored to the 9 pine trees in today's Sakai.

     Shoho-ji Temple’s sub-temple, Saika-in Temple, was originally called Saika-an Hermitage.  The hermitage fell into ruin, but Nun Hosoya Seishinni and Hermit Bun'eki rebuilt it and changed it into a temple and changed its name to Saika-in in November.

     In 1873, the temple merged Chokujo-zan Insetsu-ji Temple.

     Its precincts have a main hall, kitchen, guest rooms, entrance hall, storeroom, gate, and also Kannon-do Hall.  The grounds cover 2250 square meters.

     The Picture of Shakyamuni Subduing Mara and Attaining Enlightenment

Saika-in Temple treasures the map in which Shakyamuni subdues demons and attains the way of enlightenment.  The map was donated to the temple by Nakamura Hikozaemon, who shipped it from Siam, today’s Thailand, to Nagasaki before 1661, when the map was remade into a scroll.  He might have lived in the Japanese Village, which is known in Thailand as Ban Yipun or Muban Yipun.  The village was a historic Japanese ethnic enclave just outside the capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom that flourished from the 17th century to the mid-18th century in today's Thailand.  

     Shoho-ji Temple keeps some old official documents: the approval by Dajokan, or the Great Council of State, dated May, 1281; the donation by Ashikaga Yoshikatsu (1434-1443), dated November, 1442; the followings are all by Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490): the approval dated September, 1470, the donation dated 1470, the approval dated February,1472, the prohibition dated September, 1473; the order by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582); the letter from Hatakeyama Nobumitsu (?-1527); the letter from Matsuura Ie; and the letter from Honjo Shigemasa (1606-1676), who is known as an expert of developing rice fields and salt pans, and building irrigation channels.  The temple also keeps one volume of the Highly Praising Pure Land Sutra, one volume of Chokujo-zan Insetsu-ji Temple’s History, and the Kojin statue, which was the main deity of the former Sanpo-ji Temple.  Sanpo-ji Temple used to be located in Kojindo-suji, Tera-machi, Higashi 3-cho, Teraji-cho, Sakai.  Kojin is a Chinese-style notation and, partly, pronunciation of Ara-mitama.  The Japanese word mitama refers to the spirit of a kami or a god.  The Ara-Mitama is the rough and violent side of a spirit.  Ara-mitama could curse and bring about misfortune without appropriate pacification rites and worship.  It is unknown what the Sakai people were afraid of as something rough and violent.

     Shoho-ji Temple’s graveyard has a tombstone for the Confucian physician, Kono Shinsai (?-1797).

Address: 4 Chome-2-18 Nakanochohigashi, Sakai Ward, Sakai, Osaka 590-0956

phone: 072-221-7673