Trees In the Town

Hachinohe Castle Town 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     Iwai Yoshihiko organized 33 temples which enshrined Avalokitesvara statues in the Hachinohe castle town in 1813.  It’s surprising that such a relatively new one has already lost its member temples.

Trees In the Town

Virtual Sannohe 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #? Ota-Kannon-do Hall

 

     Sannohe 33 Kannon Pilgrimage is supposed to have been organized before the Meiji Restoration, and it has lost all its member temples but one.  Even the membership number of the surviving temple, Ota-Kannon-do Hall, is forgotten.

     There used to be a Kannon-do hall in Ota Hamlet, Matashige Village, Sannohe County, Mutsu Province.  Matashige Village was first documented in 1297.  The village had a stock farm at the beginning of the 16th century.

     The hamlet has a shrine but no Kannon-do hall.  It is unknown if the hall had something to do with the shrine.  It is also unknown where the hall’s Avalokitesvara image has gone.

     The shrine is called Marisu-ten.  The Buddhist deity Marici is usually called Marishi-ten in Japanese or Molizhitian in Chinese.  It is unknown whether Marisu is a local accent of Marishi or it is a completely different local deity.

Address: Ota, Kuraishimatashige, Gonohe, Sannohe District, Aomori 039-1703

Trees In the Town

Virtual Toshima 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Kongo-ji Temple

 

     Toshima 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized in the Edo Period and has lost all its member temples but #22.

     Kongo-ji Temple was founded in 1624.

     The temple has double main deities: a Ksitigarbha statue and a statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, which is exhibited annually on July 17th.

     The Ksitigarbha statue was carved by Mokujiki Myoman.  He avoided eating anything cooked and ate porridge of buckwheat and starch.  He wore an unlined kimono even in winter.  He didn't sleep under a roof.

     When he visited Kongo-ji Temple in 1699, smallpox spread and killed 34 children in  Nakauta alone.  He carved his first Buddhist image in the temple.  Later, he traveled around Japan and carved more than 2,000 Buddhist images, and died at the age of 93.

     Ryozui was a monk in Raiko-ji Temple in Chikugo Province.  One night, Avalokitesvara appeared in his dream and told him to go to Hokkaido, where Buddhist enlightenment activities hadn't spread wide enough or deep enough, to comfort and relieve people there, and to make them happy, and said, "I will go there first and wait for you."  When he arrived at Esashi, he heard of a wood which had been washed ashore in Moshiri and which was kept by Atsuya Shichiemon.  It glimmered in lapis lazuli at night.  Ryozui realized that the wood was the Avalokitesvara who was waiting for him, and carved an Arya Avalokitesvara statue out of it.   He had never carved any Buddhist images before but Arya Avalokitesvara appeared out of the wood as if it undressed itself.

Address: 168 Nakautacho, Esashi, Hiyama District, Hokkaido 043-0034

Phone: 0139-52-0645

Trees In the Town

Virtual Ishikari 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #27 Shoko-ji Temple

 

     Ishikari 33 Kannon Pilgrimage has lost its #13-#26 member temples.

     Shoko-ji Temple belongs to the Sanmonto School of the True Pure Land Sect of Pure Land Buddhism.  The Sanmonto School is very minor.  The distribution of its member temples is very limited in Fukui and Sabae Cities, Fukui Prefecture.  The settlers around Shoko-ji Temple might have come from the area.

     The main deity of the temple is supposed to be Amitabha.  It is not recorded whether the temple has an Avalokitesvara statue or not.   

     As Ishikari 33 Kannon Pilgrimage has lost its #28-#33 member temples, Shoko-ji Temple is the last one.

Address: 35-4 NakamuraUtashinai, Hokkaido 073-0406

Phone: 0125-42-2260

Trees In the Town

Virtual Ishikari 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #12 Unkai-ji Temple

We miss from #1 to #11 member temples of Ishikari 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     Unkai-ji Temple belongs to the Pure Land School of the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism.  Its main deity is, as the matter of course, Amitabha.  It is not recorded whether the temple has an Avalokitesvara statue or not.   

Address: 2 Chome 6-5 Myojincho, Takikawa, Hokkaido 073-0032

Phone: 0125-23-2893

Trees In the Town

Endangered 33 Kannon Pilgrimages

 

     In 40 years from 1983 to 2022, 703 temples disappeared.  From 2013 to 2022 alone, 279 temples disappeared.  As temples disappear, so will 33 Kannon Pilgrimages.  Some of the 33 Kannon Pilgrimages have already lost their member temples.  Here, I’m going to virtually visit pilgrimages on the verge of extinction.

     Ishikari 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized along the Ishikari River in the northern half of the Ishikari Plain.  In the southern half, the plain has Sapporo.  But the northern half is rapidly losing population.  Villages have been deserted, and the temples have been out of business.  JR Sassho Line, which used to run along the right bank of the Ishikari River, was to be taken out of service in May 7th, 2020, but, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the last service was moved forward to April 17th, without any good-bye ceremony.

Trees In the Town

Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #33 Osorezan Bodaiji Temple

 

     Mount Osore is one of the three most sacred mountains in Japan, along with Mount Hiei and Mount Koya.  Locals have long said, "When people die, they go to Mount Osore."  The sacred grounds, surrounded by the outer rim of the mountain, are a cut-off place that cannot be seen from the outside.  When you cross the drum bridge over the Sanzu River and enter the sacred area, a landscape that is said to resemble the afterlife spreads before your eyes.  Gokurakuhama Beach, with its beauty reminiscent of the Pure Land, Jigokudani, with its sulfurous smell, the desolate Hell of Endlessness, and Pond of Blood Hell...  At Sai no Kawara,  or Sai Riverbank, there are stones piled up by parents to mourn their young children who have died, and pinwheels spinning round and round, showing the parents' sorrow and sadness.

     Osorezan Bodaiji Temple was founded in 862, about half a century after the death of Sakanoue Tamaramaro (758-811).  That means the Imperial Army hardly reached the northern part of today's Iwate Prefecture.  Then, where did Buddhism come from to the Shimokita Peninsula?

     It might have come from Ideha Province, or, in a broader sense, from the continent across the Sea of Japan.

     In 727, the King of Balhae, Da Muye (?-737), launched a delegation of 24 envoys led by Gao Len-i.  The delegation arrived in the land of Emishi in Northern Japan by misfortune.  16 envoys, including Gao Len-i, were killed by Emishi.  The other 8 escaped under the provisional leadership of Gao Je-deog, and reached Ideha Province.

     It occurred 6 years before the advance of Japanese power to Akita.  The envoys found either the estuary of Omono River, that of Yoneshiro River, where Nushiro Port was located later, or that of Iwaki River, where Tosa Port flourished centuries later.  In those areas, at that time, Japanese and Emishi powers were clashing head-on.  The envoys might have been unfortunately mistaken for Japanese sea forces, and were attacked.  The surviving envoys left Japan next year, with the information that the archipelago was divided into the north, which was sparsely populated and less advanced than the south, and the south, which was densely populated and less advanced than Balhae and which were willing to offer many products of fabric as presents.

     In 739, Balhae sent another delegation to Japan.  This time again, they got plenty of fabric products  in exchange for hides.   Those pieces of information from the 2 delegations might have interested especially the Tiei tribe.  In 746, over 1,100 Balhae and Tiei people arrived in Ideha Province.  The number implied it was rather a big migration to be just envoys.  After getting some clothes and food as they might have expected, they were deported.  They left Ideha Province.  But to where?  They might have continued to sail north.  First, they might have invaded the estuary of Yoneshiro River, outnumbered the local Emishi people, and occupied or built Nushiro Port.  And then some of them might have continued to sail further north, reached the estuary of Iwaki River, outnumbered the local Emishi people, and occupied or built Tosa Port there.  With the knowledge of navigation, it might have been they who also built 2 ports to wait for better winds.  One was in Onga between Akita and Nushiro, and the other was in Fukaura between Nushiro and Tosa.  Those ports made the navigation across the Sea of Japan safer and more secure.

     Ideha Fortress in Akita came to be called Akita Castle by 761.  The Akita area at the time was sparsely populated, and no large-scale villages were found.  The fortress was in the front line.  A kind of farmer-soldiers were sent to the area mainly from Koshi and Shinano Provinces, and a kind of a small “castle town” was formed around the fortress.  The villagers consisted of immigrant farmer-soldiers and “subordinate Emishi”, who had surrendered themselves to Japan.

     In 771, 325 people took 17 separate ships and unusually sailed against south winds to Japan from Balhae in June (in August by Gregorian Calendar).  They arrived at Nushiro Port in "barbarian lands" of Ideha Province.  It is “surprising” that such a big fleet at the time orderly sailed, yet orderly strayed north, and orderly arrived at a port town in “barbarian lands.”  It was more than likely not a coincidence.  In calculation, about 20 people were on board a ship on average.  If about 40 people were aboard on an envoy ship as usual, many of the other 16 ships could have been smaller, just as small as fishing boats.

     Let's take a different perspective on the issue.  They might have avoided the winter when winds and waves were too hard for small fishing boats, although they had to row.  The envoy ship led the other fishing boats so as that they could get to the sparsely populated area safely.  Another 285 people stayed in Nushiro Port to engage in fishing and smuggling, and inhabited there, probably with their senior colleagues who had arrived there about a generation before.  It was a deliberate and coordinated migration plan to add human resources to their colony port towns.

     In the 15th century, the Ando Pirates, who were based in the Tosa Port, and the Nanbu Family, who were based in the central part of Mutsu Province, struggled for supremacy in Shimokita Peninsula, which faces the Tsugaru Channels between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific.  It's not surprising if Buddhism in the peninsula was brought across the Sea of Japan.

Address : 3-2 Usoriyama, Tanabe, Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture, 035-0021

Telephone : 0175-22-3825