Virtual Arima County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Shogaku-ji Temple

 

     It is said that a holy place was opened by Hodo around the 7th century on Okutoyama in Ono Village.  Later, during the Kamakura period, Priest Sonkei lamented the decline of the holy place and painstakingly restored it, founding Shokaku-san Shofuku-ji Temple.

     Today, they have 2 hills called Okuyama: one in Kamihonjo, Sanda, Hyogo 669-1351, and the other in Kogaki, Sanda, Hyogo 669-1401, but they have no hill called Okutoyama in the area.

     At the end of the Warring States Period, the temple was burned down by the forces of Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) when he invaded the Chugoku Region.  Later, in 1583, Priest Choyo revived it as Daion-zan Shokaku-ji Temple when the Sanda Castle Town was developed, thanks to the support of the then lord, Yamazaki Kataie (1547-1591).  The temple served as the lord's family temple but his son, Iemori (1567-1614) was moved to Inaba Province in 1600.

     At the end of the Edo Period (1603-1868), Priest Ichinen, the 57th head priest of Seijoko-ji Temple, held a Buddhist initiation ceremony for 5 days in the temple during his pilgrimage in 1854.  Seijoko-ji Temple was recognized by the Tokugawa Shogunate's Magistrate of Temples and Shrines as the head temple of the 274 Ji Sect temples in 1631.

     Shokaku-ji Temple's Buddhist tanka poem is:

Just pray to Amidabha

For compassion and a promise to relieve

The suffering of the people of the world.

Address: 27-35 Sandacho, Sanda, Hyogo 669-1533

Phone: 079-562-2826

Seijoko-ji Temple

Address: 1 Chome-8-1 Nishitomi, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 251-0001

Phone: 0466-22-2063