Virtual Miki County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #13 Kyokai-ji Temple

 

     Legend has it that Kyokai-ji Temple was founded in 651 by Hermit Hodo, who traveled from India through Tang China and the Korean kingdom of Baekje to Japan from the 6th to 7th centuries.  The surrounding area has Wakikawa Nenbutsu-sui Spring, Mikoromo Cascade, and Argha Spring.  Hodo could have recognized their fresh water as holy or sacred.

     In 795, Kukai (774-835) trained at the temple for 3 years, and the temple was renamed "Kyokai-ji" according to tradition.  Kukai also briefly went by the name Kyokai.  From 793 to 803, Kukai is said to have trained himself in nature and his footsteps in those days are unknown.  So, it is possible that he trained around the holy springs and cascades.

     Throughout the medieval days, the temple had 48 buildings and its territory was large enough to support tens of monks.  It was burned down during the Battle of Miki in 1580.  Tradition syas, during the Battle of Miki, the monks of Kyokai-ji Temple sent bamboo tubes filled with rice down the Waki River, a tributary of the Mino River, to Miki Castle to help the besieged army of Bessho Nagaharu (1558-1580).  Because they used Japanese umbrella pines which were only found around the temple as a stopper for the bamboo tubes, the sender was discovered, and the temple was burned down.  Later, thanks to the enthusiastic donations of parishioners, reconstruction gradually progressed, and Daishi-do Hall, or Kukai's Memorial Hall, was built in 1615.

     Kyokai-ji Temple's Buddhist tanka poem is:

My prayers have been answered.

The waterfall echoes to this side of the mountain

From where the spring water flows.

Address: Wakigawa-354 Hosokawacho, Miki, Hyogo 673-0722

Phone: 0794-86-2295

Wakikawa Nenbutsu-sui Spring

Address: Wakigawa-345 Hosokawacho, Miki, Hyogo 673-0722

Mikoromo Cascade

Address: Hosokawacho, Miki, Hyogo 673-0722

Argha Spring

Address: Hosokawacho, Miki, Hyogo 673-0722

Kagamiiwa

Address: Hosokawacho, Miki, Hyogo 673-0722