Old Kannabiji
October, 2003
| Its a nice autumn day, and our
guide, Mr. Handa, is taking us on a short hike to the site of the
original Kannabiji temple.We begin at Mizunokuni. Mr. Handa is,
among other things, a keen amateur astronomer and geologist, and
he has a small "roadside attraction" museum
on route 261. He has supplied us not only with a map of where we
are heading, but a graphic rendition of what the mountain looked
like ages ago in geologic time. The trail is steep, switchbacking
up the side of the mountain, but clearly marked. After 20 minutes
of slow climbing we reach a ridge and follow it. There is still
a trail, but its fainter. Another 10 minutes, and after some serious
bushwacking, we are there... on a flat ledge below the main ridge.
There was a temple here since the 8th century, and according to
a painting in the new Kannabiji temple, it was a large complex of
buildings that stretched from here down to the river below. In 1885
the Hamada earthquake caused the spring that supplied water to the
temple to close, forcing the temple to be dismantled, carried down
the mountain, and ferried by boat about 2 kilometeres down the river
to its current site. |
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| There is little to show that
a temple had been there. All that remains are the huge stones that
were used as the foundation for the main building, exploring further,
some stone walls give more evidence that people were once here.
However, because the bench where the temple stood has fewer and
smaller trees than the rest of the mountain, its possible to see
some beautiful views, downstream to Kawagoe, and across the mountains
of Sakurae. Before heading back down the mountain, we follow a faint
trail to the old temple cemetery. Some of the gravestones are over
a thousand years old. |
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| The temple has a sculpture by
the 8th century monk, Gyoki. There
is a story concerning this sculpture. At some time long ago there
was a particularly severe winter with deep snows, and unable to
get food after their stores ran low, the monks began to get very
hungry. A deer wandered into the grounds of the temple, and the
monks shot it with an arrow and ate it. At this time the eating
of meat was banned, and after the feast the monks noticed that the
sculpture by Gyoki had a "wound" appear in its shoulder,
the exact place where the deer had been shot. The ban on eating
meat was not as strict as it sounds. Rather, the ban was strict,
but the Japanese have an ability, like most of us Im sure, to alter
reality by changing the names of things. Rabbits were classified
as birds, therefore being 2 legged it was OK to eat them. Wild boar
were named Mountain Whales, and being whales it was there OK to
eat them. However, deer were definetly meat though. |
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