Virtual New Innami County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #25 Jizo-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Jizo-ji Temple was founded on the top of the Jizoji Tumulus in Ikejiri Village, Innami County, Harima Province.  Its precincts have an itabi dated 1281, so the temple could be as old as the itabi.  Ikejiri Village was first documented in 1532 in the document kept by Hoon-ji Temple.

     Itabi are unique religious monuments that were once prevalent in the Kanto region. Often categorized as a type of stone monument or Japanese pagoda (sotoba), an itabi typically features a flattened body with a distinctive triangular or pyramidal top. These monuments served various purposes, including grave markers, memorial pagodas, or stupas for the deceased.

     The surface of an itabi is often intricately carved with Buddhist iconography such as tengai (baldachin) decorations, flower vases, censers, and candlesticks. At its center, a Sanskrit character (Siddham) is usually inscribed within a circle above a lotus pedestal. Additionally, they may contain religious or poetic texts, the date of commemoration, zodiac signs, and details regarding the donor and their motivations. Itabi are either set directly into the ground or placed upon a stone platform.

     These monuments flourished in medieval Buddhism from the Kamakura period (1185–1333) through the early Edo period (1603–1868). While they are found throughout the Kanto region, they are generally classified into two primary types based on their material:

The Musashi Type: Carved from green schist (ao-ishi) sourced from the Chichibu district.

The Shimousa Type: Carved from black schist sourced from Mt. Tsukuba in Hitachi Province.

The tradition of itabi spread across Japan as Kanto-based samurai were dispatched to various provinces to solidify the authority of the Kamakura Shogunate.

     Some samurai might have moved from the Kanto Region to be a samurai steward in the Hei Manor and one of them could have been killed in Mongol invasions of Japan in 1281, for whom the itabi was built.

     The Jizoji Tumulus is a solitary burial mound located on the southern slope of Mt. Jizoji at the 15 meters above sea level on the western bank of the lower reaches of the Kakogawa River. As the temple was built on top of the mound, the mound's original form has been damaged.

     The mound is presumed to be circular in shape, estimated to be about 20 meters in diameter.  The burial chamber is a horizontal stone chamber opening to the south-southeast.  It is a beautifully constructed stone chamber using cut Ryuzan stone, with large stones used for the back wall and ceiling, and the side walls constructed with irregularly shaped stones. It is unknown what the grave goods inside the chamber are.  The construction period is estimated to be around the late 7th century, during the end of the Kofun Period.

     The dimensions of the stone chamber are as follows:

     Total length of stone chamber: 6.15 meters (existing)

     Burial chamber: Length 3.62-3.68 meters, width 1.785-1.925 meters, height approximately 1.90 meters

     Entrance passage: Unknown

     The entrance passage was destroyed and rebuilt in later periods, and the current passage houses a small stone Buddha. The stone material of the stone chamber is cut Ryuzan stones.  The burial chamber is rectangular in plane, with a length-to-width ratio of 2:1 (possibly 12 shaku:6 shaku in Tang Dynasty measurements).  The back wall rises almost vertically, with a single large stone reaching almost to the ceiling, on which smaller stones are piled.  The side walls are constructed from irregularly shaped stones, with the east wall being three layers high and the west wall two layers high.  Chisel marks are visible on the surface of the stones, but not in the gaps between them, suggesting that the stones were processed after they were laid.  The floor is covered with rounded pebbles about 10 centimeters in diameter, but it is unclear whether these are from the time of construction.  The ceiling consists almost of a single large stone, with the smaller one in the innermost section.

     In addition, two stone sarcophagi which were made of Ryuzan stone in medieval times, repurposed from ancient sarcophagi, remain within the grounds of Jizoji Temple. The original location of their burial mounds is unknown, but one of the stone monuments shows signs of transformation from a stone sarcophagus to an itabi to a stone Buddhist image.

Address: Ikejiri-1 Heisocho, Kakogawa, Hyogo 675-1233

Phone: 079-428-0620