Trees In the Town

 

Virtual Old Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #7 Kodo-ji Temple

 

     Ei-jima or Ei-ga-jima Island was located in the west of the mouth of Akane River.  In 726, Kasa Kanamura composed a poem mentioning the island as Nakisumi-no-funase:

I have heard that in Matsuho Bay on Awaji Island,

which can be seen over Nakisumi-no Funase,

Young female divers collect seaweed in the morning

And parch seaweed to get salt in the evening.

I have no way of going to see these girls.

Without a man's heart but with the broken heart,

I just go back and forth in the same place,

Yearning for the female divers.

I have neither a boat nor a helm.

     Funase was an inlet where boats waited for favorable or weaker winds.  In 744, Gyoki (668-749) built a breakwater for the port and overhauled it as Uozumi Port.  The port was one of the 5 important ports in Harima and Settsu Provinces: Muro, Matogata, Uozumi, Owada, and Kawajiri Ports, which were located in today's Tatsuno, Himeji, Akashi, Kobe, and Amagasaki Cities.

     It is unknown when Eigashima Port was developed in the east of the mouth of Akane River.  Muryo-ko-ji Temple was originally founded for the port town people.  Priest Rin'yo moved the temple to its present place, with its Kannon-do hall left as Kodo-ji Temple, in 1613, 4 years before Ogasawara Tadazane (1596-1667) started building Akashi Castle and its castle town in 1617.  Some argue that the temple was moved due to severe coastal erosion.  Akashi Port might have become better and more prosperous than Eigashima Port.

     The temple’s Buddhist tanka poem is:

The heart that prays for the comfort

In the other world

Is just as pure as the water in the sea.

     It is unknown why the temple left the pilgrimage.

Address: Eigashima-785 Okubocho, Akashi, Hyogo 674-0064

Muryoko-ji Temple

Address: 10-11 Taikancho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0897

Phone: 078-912-8839

Eigashima Fishing Port

Address: Nishijima Okubocho, Akashi, Hyogo 674-0065

Funage Castle Site

Address: 10-33 Shinmeicho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0027

Trees In the Town

 

Old Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     I have finished virtally visiting Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.  The pilgrimage is said to have replaced some member temples, and I continue to virtually visit them.

     Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized in Akashi County, Harima Province, in 1685.  It isn’t recorded why and by whom the pilgrimage was organized.  If you don’t mind my speculating why and by whom as I please, the organization could have had something to do with when it was organized.

     To begin with, the 5th lord of the Akashi Domain, Matsudaira Tadakuni (1597-1659), arrived at Akashi in 1649.  He was a literature nerd.  As you may know, Japanese people love to carry out Seichi-Junrei, namely Religious Pilgrimage, but actually to visit the location sites of literature works, movies, and even anime.  In anime’s cases, we even assume that this and that real places are actually related to this and that scenes in certain anime, and we make pilgrimages according to those assumptions.  Tadakuni did what we do today.

     Tadakuni assumed that certain places were the places where the stories of Tale of Genji took place.  In the Tale of Genji, Monk Akashi and Princess Akashi lived in Oka-no-tachi, or Hill Residence.  They are all imaginary, but Tadakuni built even a five-ringed tower grave for Monk Akashi and identified the pine tree which the Shining Prince, who stayed at Hama-no-tachi, or Beach Residence, looked at and the alley through which he visited the princess.  Tadakuni even composed tanka poems for the places and built stone monuments there with his tanka poems inscribed.  Some of them became “holy places” for literature nerds like him.  Some temples became popular enough to attract more worshipers, and accordingly increase their income.

     Tadakuni and his son, Nobuyuki (1631-1686), were good owners and managers of the domain.  After Nobuyuki moved out, however, Honda Masatoshi (1641-1707) came.  During his reign, the people of the domain complained to the inspector, pointing out that the domain administration was "inhumane."  Masatoshi was dismissed on February 2nd, 1682, and Matsudaira Tadanao (1656-1721) arrived.

     The domain needed to be put back on track.  Organizing a 33 Kannon pilgrimage could decrease the number of outbound pilgrims or tourists, and, if the pilgrimage could attract some nerds, increase the number of inbound tourists.  It even increased the income of 33 temples and that could help stabilize public morals.

     It is unknown whether the replaced temples left the pilgrimage by their own wills or the pilgrimage got their names off the list.  It is also unknown who chose the new member temples. Anyway, I'm virtually visiting those expelled.