Trees In the Town

 

Arima County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     Arima County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage is said to have been organized sometime between 1688 and 1704.  It isn’t clear who organized the pilgrimage.  In those days, the county was divided among the Tokugawa Shogunate, Tayasu-Tokugawa Family, Kuki Family, Anbe Family, the Hoshina Family, and the Aoyama Family.  So, it can not be a certain domain or its lord that organized the pilgrimage.  In those days, the townspeople's culture flourished around Osaka and Kyoto.  So, it could have been townspeople who organized the pilgrimage.

     The pilgrimage was revived in 1912 and in 2007.  It seems some temples were replaced in each revival.  The details of the replacements aren’t clear.

    In 1912, the photo book of Arima County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was published in collaboration with Takeda Mitsuyuki of Kaburai-ji Temple; Okamoto Zentaro, a parishioner of Komyo-ji Temple; Yamada Yoshitsugu, the representative of Komyo-ji Temple; and Horikawa Tatsumichi, Komyo-ji Temple's chief priest.

     In 2007, Shigeo Kotani, Toshihiro Noda, and Katsumi Tanaka, who were  Keian-ji Temple’s parishioners, published the guide book of Arima County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Kaburai-ji Temple

Address: Ikuno-1078-1 Dojocho, Kita Ward, Kobe, Hyogo 651-1503

Phone: 078-986-4095

Komyo-ji Temple

Address: 3 Chome-13-21 Yamaguchicho Shimoyamaguchi, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 651-1412

Phone: 078-904-1331

Keian-ji Temple

Address: 1192 Kishi, Sanda, Hyogo 669-1541

Phone: 079-563-4748

Trees In the Town

 

Virtual Old Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #33 Fukuzo-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Fukuzo-ji Temple was founded.

     U.S. Air Force bombed Akashi City 6 times in 1945: on January 19th with 62 bombers, on June 9th with 24 bombers, on June 22nd with 26 bombers, on June 26th with 31 bombers,on July 7th with 124 bombers, and on July 28th with 3 bombers.  On July 7th, they used incendiary devices, and Fukuzo-ji Temple might have been burned down on that day.  The temple was abolished with its graveyard left as Daitoku-ji Ganjo-ji Kyodo Cemetery.  Kyodo means Cooperation or Join.  It is unknown why Fukuzo-ji was renamed Ganjo-ji on that occasion.

     Fukuzo-ji Temple’s Buddhist tanka poem is unknown.

Daitoku-ji Ganjo-ji Kyodo Cemetery

Address: 5-5 Taruyamachi, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0898

Trees In the Town

 

Virtual Old Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #23 Ryuzo-in Temple

 

     Taisan-ji Temple was founded in 716 by Fujiwara Umakai (694-737), who was appointed to be the vice ambassador of the 9th Japanese Mission to Tang China in the year.  When the temple was most prosperous, it had 41 sub-temples in its precincts, but only 5 of them survive today.  Ryuzo-in Temple is one of the surviving 5.

     Ryuzo means Dragon Elephant and is the high priest who excelled in both learning and virtue.  The original word for both a dragon and an elephant is naga, and dragons and elephants are the most superior animals in Hindu mythology.

     It is unknown why Ryuzo-in Temple left the Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, and its Buddhist tanka poem is also unknown.

Address: Zenkai-224-242 Ikawadani-chō, Nishi Ward, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2108

Phone: 078-974-0308

Trees In the Town

 

Virtual Old Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #15 Seisui-ji Temple

 

     Seisui-ji Temple claims to have been founded in 716 by Priest Joe (643-666).  Their time lines are contradictory to each other.  The temple's main deity is Bhaisajyaguru.

     Jinno-ji Temple, Chorin-ji, Koke-ji, and Jurin-ji Temples claim that they belong to the Akashi Seven Yakushi Buddhas.  Taisan-ji Temple might be a member of the Akashi Seven Yakushi Buddhas.  If we included Seisui-ji Temple, we would have 6 of the Akashi Seven Yakushi Buddhas.

     Shimoosabe Sumiyoshi Shrine’s priest, Morioka Tangonokami, is said to have led the foundation of Seisui-ji Temple.  The shrine is said to have been founded in 754, nearly 4 decades after the foundation of Seisui-ji Temple.  Everything is inconsistent with one another.

     The temple’s Buddhist tanka poem is:

It's a blessing.

As we make a wish,

Bhaisajyaguru protect us every time.

or

A white waterfall in the mountain

And the sound of the winds through pine trees

Will certainly make it cool.

     Inconsistency shadows even on the Buddhist tanka poems.

Address: Wada-570 Oshibedanicho, Nishi Ward, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2206

Jinno-ji Temple

Address: 2 Chome-14-18 Hayashi, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0034

Phone: 078-923-4351

Chorin-ji Temple

Address: 9-4 Zaimokucho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0893

Phone: 078-911-4727

Koke-ji Temple

Address: 2-chome-10-35 Taidera, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0845

Phone: 078-911-3755

Jurin-ji Temple

Address: 1074 Takasagocho Yokomachi, Takasago, Hyogo 676-0051

Phone: 079-442-0242

Taisan-ji Temple

Address: Zenkai-224 Ikawadani-chō, Nishi Ward, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2108

Phone: 078-976-6658

Shimoosabe Sumiyoshi Shrine

Address: Saita-302 Oshibedanicho, Nishi Ward, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2207

Phone: 078-994-4406

Sanuki no Suke’s Diary (22)

 

     Suddenly, something was thrown through the sliding door.  I looked to see what it was, and saw a person crouching there, wearing the indigo-and-safflower colored outer garment I had left in my room.  It was my sister, Fujiwara Kenshi, who had come to visit after hearing of the Emperor's death.

     "Oh, how pitiful.  I will never again be able to see you alive.  Why did you avoid me and not call me?  I cared for you without fail, even through your long illness.  Now, at the very last moment, I have fallen ill myself.  I regret my misfortune."

     She continued crying.

     I sat quietly beside him, pressing the fine quality crepe paper I had used to wipe the sweat from his face against my face.  "Until now, I have thought that my love for the Emperor was just as strong as those crying people's, but perhaps mine was inferior, for I was unable to cry out loud like them," I realized.

Trees In the Town

 

Virtual Old Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #7 Kodo-ji Temple

 

     Ei-jima or Ei-ga-jima Island was located in the west of the mouth of Akane River.  In 726, Kasa Kanamura composed a poem mentioning the island as Nakisumi-no-funase:

I have heard that in Matsuho Bay on Awaji Island,

which can be seen over Nakisumi-no Funase,

Young female divers collect seaweed in the morning

And parch seaweed to get salt in the evening.

I have no way of going to see these girls.

Without a man's heart but with the broken heart,

I just go back and forth in the same place,

Yearning for the female divers.

I have neither a boat nor a helm.

     Funase was an inlet where boats waited for favorable or weaker winds.  In 744, Gyoki (668-749) built a breakwater for the port and overhauled it as Uozumi Port.  The port was one of the 5 important ports in Harima and Settsu Provinces: Muro, Matogata, Uozumi, Owada, and Kawajiri Ports, which were located in today's Tatsuno, Himeji, Akashi, Kobe, and Amagasaki Cities.

     It is unknown when Eigashima Port was developed in the east of the mouth of Akane River.  Muryo-ko-ji Temple was originally founded for the port town people.  Priest Rin'yo moved the temple to its present place, with its Kannon-do hall left as Kodo-ji Temple, in 1613, 4 years before Ogasawara Tadazane (1596-1667) started building Akashi Castle and its castle town in 1617.  Some argue that the temple was moved due to severe coastal erosion.  Akashi Port might have become better and more prosperous than Eigashima Port.

     The temple’s Buddhist tanka poem is:

The heart that prays for the comfort

In the other world

Is just as pure as the water in the sea.

     It is unknown why the temple left the pilgrimage.

Address: Eigashima-785 Okubocho, Akashi, Hyogo 674-0064

Muryoko-ji Temple

Address: 10-11 Taikancho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0897

Phone: 078-912-8839

Eigashima Fishing Port

Address: Nishijima Okubocho, Akashi, Hyogo 674-0065

Funage Castle Site

Address: 10-33 Shinmeicho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0027

Trees In the Town

 

Old Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     I have finished virtally visiting Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.  The pilgrimage is said to have replaced some member temples, and I continue to virtually visit them.

     Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized in Akashi County, Harima Province, in 1685.  It isn’t recorded why and by whom the pilgrimage was organized.  If you don’t mind my speculating why and by whom as I please, the organization could have had something to do with when it was organized.

     To begin with, the 5th lord of the Akashi Domain, Matsudaira Tadakuni (1597-1659), arrived at Akashi in 1649.  He was a literature nerd.  As you may know, Japanese people love to carry out Seichi-Junrei, namely Religious Pilgrimage, but actually to visit the location sites of literature works, movies, and even anime.  In anime’s cases, we even assume that this and that real places are actually related to this and that scenes in certain anime, and we make pilgrimages according to those assumptions.  Tadakuni did what we do today.

     Tadakuni assumed that certain places were the places where the stories of Tale of Genji took place.  In the Tale of Genji, Monk Akashi and Princess Akashi lived in Oka-no-tachi, or Hill Residence.  They are all imaginary, but Tadakuni built even a five-ringed tower grave for Monk Akashi and identified the pine tree which the Shining Prince, who stayed at Hama-no-tachi, or Beach Residence, looked at and the alley through which he visited the princess.  Tadakuni even composed tanka poems for the places and built stone monuments there with his tanka poems inscribed.  Some of them became “holy places” for literature nerds like him.  Some temples became popular enough to attract more worshipers, and accordingly increase their income.

     Tadakuni and his son, Nobuyuki (1631-1686), were good owners and managers of the domain.  After Nobuyuki moved out, however, Honda Masatoshi (1641-1707) came.  During his reign, the people of the domain complained to the inspector, pointing out that the domain administration was "inhumane."  Masatoshi was dismissed on February 2nd, 1682, and Matsudaira Tadanao (1656-1721) arrived.

     The domain needed to be put back on track.  Organizing a 33 Kannon pilgrimage could decrease the number of outbound pilgrims or tourists, and, if the pilgrimage could attract some nerds, increase the number of inbound tourists.  It even increased the income of 33 temples and that could help stabilize public morals.

     It is unknown whether the replaced temples left the pilgrimage by their own wills or the pilgrimage got their names off the list.  It is also unknown who chose the new member temples. Anyway, I'm virtually visiting those expelled.

Trees In the Town

 

Virtual Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #33 Gessho-ji Temple

 

     In 811, Kukai (774-835) founded Yoryu-ji Temple on Akamatsuyama Hill, where Akashi Castle was built centuries later.  In 887, Priest Kakusho of the temple enshrined the Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue which had been the personal guardian Buddhist image of Kakinomoto Hitomaro (662-710) and changed the name of the temple to Gessho-ji.  In 1574, the temple converted from Shingon Buddhism to Caodong Chan Buddhism.  In 1621, its precincts became part of Akashi Castle, and, in 1622, the new buildings of Gessho-ji Temple were completed at their current locations.  In 1744, the mountain's name was changed to Hitomaro-san after Kakinomoto Hitomaro, presumably to increase the number of its visitors.  In 1871, Hitomaro-sha Shrine was separated from Gessho-ji Temple due to the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order issued in 1868 and it was renamed Kakimoto-jinja Shrine.

     During the Edo Period (1603-1867), peace continued, the art of waka poetry flourished, and faith in Hitomaro grew.  In 1723, at the 1,000th anniversary of Hitomaro's death, Hitomaro-sha Shrine was granted the divine title of Shoichii Kakimoto Daimyojin.  Retired Emperor Reigen (1654-1732) donated large square cards of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry, of which Hitomaro was a member, Emperor Sakuramachi (1720-1750) donated a troupe of short registers (formerly a national treasure and important cultural property) and the strips of paper with his 50 tanka poems, and Empress Go-Sakuramachi (1740-1813) gave the strips of paper with her tanka poems.  Since then, literary figures and artists have continued to visit the temple, and the temple has also received many donations of calligraphy and paintings.  Most of them are preserved at the Akashi Municipal Cultural Museum.  In 1972, a grand celebration was held to mark the 1,250th anniversary of Hitomaro's death, with numerous tanka and haiku poems submitted from all over Japan.  In addition, many books were published, including The Gessho-ji Temple Legend, The Manyo People's View of Nature, and Basho's Haiku Theory.

     The temple’s Buddhist tanka poem is:

Namo Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha

Among Akashi Lagoon and the moonlit hills,

May the blessings of Hitomaro be profound.

Address: 1-29 Hitomarucho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0877

Phone: 078-911-4947

Kakinomoto Shrine

Address: 1-26 Hitomarucho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0877

Phone: 078-911-3930

Akashi Municipal Cultural Museum

Address: 2-chome-13-1 Uenomaru, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0846

Phone: 078-918-5400