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