Heiken-ji
The Kawasaki Daishi ( Jap. 平間寺 ), popularly often Kawasaki Daishi ( 川崎大師 ) is a Buddhist temple in Kawasaki ku of the Japanese city of Kawasaki (Kanagawa Prefecture). It is the main temple of the Chizan-ha ( 智 山 派 ) of the Shingi-Shingon ( 真言 宗 ) of the Shingon-shū . Its reputation for bringing great happiness to believers makes it one of the three most popular temples in Hatsumode , during which two to three million people visit it.
The origins of the temple go back to the samurai Hirama Kanenori ( 平 間 兼 乗 ; life dates unknown) from the province of Owari , who was led by his master Minamoto no Yoshimitsu ( 新 羅 三郎 源 義 光 , Shinra Saburō Minamoto no Yoshimitsu ; 1045–1127) because of a ( false) accusation of his status and as Rōnin traveled through the country and finally settled on the Tama in what is now Tokyo Bay as a fisherman.
According to legend, Kanenori is said to have appeared to the monk Kōbō-Daishi in a dream one night at the age of 42 and meant to Kanenori to salvage a Kūkai statue made by Kūkai himself during his stay in China with his fishing net on the beach.
After Kanenori is said to have done as he was told, the priest Sonken ( 尊賢 ) from Kōya-san Kongōbu-ji is said to have visited him and together with him in the third year of the era Daiji ( 大治 ), i.e. H. 1128, built a small temple (the original Heiken-ji) for the statue. Kanenori was later rehabilitated and donated half of the income from his fief to the temple in gratitude.
Over the centuries, the temple has had a reputation for bringing special happiness to believers. However, he was only in the late Edo period popular after the seat of the Bakufu in the immediate area (after Edo was moved), the second son of the eighth Tokugawa - Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684 to 1751), Tokugawa Munetake ( 徳川宗武 , also Tayasu Munetake ( 田 安宗武 ); 1716–1771) became the temple's patron saint . Munetake had gone to the temple in 1753 to pray for his wife, who was about to turn 33, an unlucky age according to traditional superstitions ( 厄 年 , yakudoshi ; 25 and 42 for men, 19 and 33 for women ). Munetake's wife passed the year without bad incidents. Munetake visited the temple in 1756 to pray for his own yakudoshi, and that year was a happy one, so Munetake devoted himself to the temple's financial support and praise. The shoguns soon visited the Heiken-ji during their yakudoshi to pray for happiness in this year of their lives.
During the Second World War , the highly industrialized area around Kawasaki was completely destroyed by American B-29 bombers, which meant that the temple was almost completely destroyed. The Heiken-ji library was also bombed, which is why the historical origins could not be reconstructed in detail later due to missing documents.
Web links
- Official website - Japanese and English
- Information on Kamakura Today - English
- Photo gallery - Japanese
Coordinates: 35 ° 32 ′ 1.5 ″ N , 139 ° 43 ′ 46.1 ″ E