Iwamasan Shoho-ji (Iwama-dera)

滋賀県

Twelfth temple of the Saigoku 33 — mountain sanctuary near the 443 m summit of Mt. Iwama, famed for Basho's haiku pond, the "sweating Kannon" and prayers against dementia

Founded

722

Type

Temple

Visited

Want to go

Access

From JR or Keihan Ishiyama Station, take Keihan Bus to Naka-Senmachi, then 50 min on foot. ~15 min by car from Ishiyama IC

82 Ishiyama-uchihatake-cho, Otsu City, Shiga

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Info

Temple

Founded 722

1304 years

Enshrined Deity

千手観音

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秘仏

Founder

Taicho Daishi (by order of Empress Gensho)

Overview

Shoho-ji, popularly known as Iwama-dera, is the twelfth temple of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, set on the 443 m summit ridge of Mt. Iwama in Otsu, Shiga. According to tradition the temple was founded in 722 by Taicho Daishi, the mountain ascetic who opened Mt. Hakusan, on imperial order from Empress Gensho to pray for her recovery from illness. He is said to have received the Senju Dharani fr…

Origins

Tradition holds that in 722 the mountain ascetic Taicho Daishi, who had opened Mt. Hakusan in Kaga, was sent here on imperial order by Empress Gensho to pray for her recovery. He received the Senju Dharani from a giant katsura tree on Mt. Iwama, carved a life-sized Thousand-Armed Kannon and enshrine…

Pilgrimage Circuit

A pilgrimage of 33 Kannon temples — the oldest Kannon circuit in Japan, winding through 6 prefectures in the Kinki region and Gifu

Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

Principal Buddha

Senju Kannon

千

About Senju Kannon

Wooden seated Thousand-Armed Kannon by Tankei (Sanjūsangendō, Kyoto, National Treasure, Kamakura period)

Senju Kannon (Thousand-Armed Kannon): rescues all beings through a thousand methods, with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes. Usually represented with 42 arms standing for the full thousand — an expression of boundless compassion.

Kannon Forms · Seven Kannon

聖

Shō

十

Jūichimen

千

Senju

如

Nyoirin

馬

Batō

准