Virtual Kasai Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #19 Daigan-ji Temple

 

     Daigan-ji Temple was founded sometime between 1655 and 1658 by inviting Priest Tennen Zentoku from Sanpo-ji Temple in Kitanakajima, Settsu Province. Although it was originally a Rinzai sect temple, the second head priest, Inko, converted it to the Obaku sect in 1673.  It is said that he designated the Chinese monk Nangen (1631-1692) as the temple's founding master while serving as its second abbot himself.

     Historically, there was no administrative area named "Kita-Nakajima" (北中島) in Osaka. The historical Nakajima area was divided into Nishi-Nakajima (West Nakajima) and Higashi-Nakajima (East Nakajima).  Sanbo-ji Temple is located further west (in present-day Nishiyodogawa Ward, Osaka). This discrepancy likely stems from minor inaccuracies or generalizations in local, orally transmitted temple documents recorded in later periods.

     Nangen Shoha (1631–1692) was a Chinese Obaku monk who arrived in Japan in 1654 alongside Ingen Ryuki (1592-1673), the founder of the Japanese Obaku sect. Nangen played a key role in founding Manpuku-ji Temple in Uji, Kyoto.  It was a common custom during the Edo period for newly converted or newly established temples to designate a highly prestigious monk—such as a direct Chinese disciple of Ingen—as their symbolic or founding abbot to raise the temple's status and institutional legitimacy.  Given Nangen's prominent status at Manpuku-ji and Kokubun-ji in Settsu Province, it is highly probable that he served as an honorary/honorific founder rather than being physically resident at Daigan-ji in Kasai.

     Daigan-ji Temple’s Buddhist tanka poem is:

O sacred Kannon, changeless and divine,

Across all ages, clear Your graces shine.

With boundless power to fulfill every prayer,

The Elephant King is filled with holy care.

Address: 1071 Uzuranocho, Kasai, Hyogo 675-2103

Phone: 0120-538-175