Virtual New Innami County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #1 Kannon-do Hall

 

     It is unknown when Kannon-do Hall was founded in Sone Village, Innami County, Harima Province.  The hall is located near Sone-Tenman Shrine.

     According to shrine tradition, in 901, Sugawara Michizane (845-903), on his way to exile in Dazaifu, landed at the port of Iho and planted a pine tree, saying, "If I am not guilty, may the pine tree thrive."  His son, Atsushige (877-926), who was exiled to Harima Province at the same time, is said to have founded Sone-Tenman Shrine.  As Michizane became a god in 947, Atsushige died too early to found a shrine for his father.

     The shrine, however, became famous and Prince Ryosho (1623-11693) presented a name plate to it.  He studied painting under the Kano brothers, Tan'yu (1602-1674) and Naonobu (1607-1650), mastered the Ikenobo school of flower arrangement, and possessed a deep understanding of classics.

     The pine tree planted by Michizane was known as the sacred pine Sone no Matsu.  The first tree is believed to have died in 1798.  A roughly one tenths scale model, commissioned by a local village headman in the early 1700s, is preserved, allowing visitors to see what it looked like in its heyday.  The second-generation pine tree, which grew from a seedling of the first planted pine in the 1780's, was designated a national natural monument in 1924, but died in 1952.  The current tree is the 5th generation.  The trunk of the dead pine tree is preserved in the Sacred Pine Hall.

     Anyway, Kannon-do Hall could have been a shrine temple of Sone Tenman Shrine.

Address: 2287-13 Sonecho, Takasago, Hyogo 676-0082

Sone Tenman Shrien

Address: 2299-1 Sonecho, Takasago, Hyogo 676-0082

Phone: 079-447-0645