Aizu Yakushi Pilgrims

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Aizu Wakamatsu 会津若松 Yakushi Pilgrims　薬師参り
Fukushima

Most pilgrimages to Yakushi Nyorai are to 12 temples, because of
The 12 Vows of Yakushi Nyorai.
. Yakushi Nyorai Pilgrimages 薬師巡り Yakushi Meguri .
- Introduction -

Aizuwakamatsu (会津若松市 Aizuwakamatsu-shi)
is the main town in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture.
It is located in the western part of Fukushima Prefecture, in the Southeast part of the Aizu basin.

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Aizu Go Yakushi 会津五薬師 Five Yakushi temples

Statues of Yakushi Nyorai are only present at Shojo-Ji and at the Kami-Unai Yakushi Do, both statues are from the Heian period. They are located in the four directions (and the center) of the pilgrimage.
They have all been founded by priest Tokuitsu in the Heian period with the vow to bring peace and prosperity to the region.

More temples founded by Tokuitsu are listed here.

. Priest Tokuitsu 得一 徳溢 .
天平宝字4年（760年） － 承和2年（835年）/ (781? - 842?)

The five Yakushi temples have been founded by Tokuitsu in 807.
The statues are all from carved from keyaki ケヤキ zelkova wood.

- - - Legend knows this:
In former times the area around the volcano, Mount Bandaisan 磐梯山 in Aizu, had been cursed with thick fog by a monter. The sun was hardly to be seen and no crops would grow. People became ill and died.
So the court in Kyoto sent Kukai Kobo Daishi to help with his magical power. He dispelled the monster and healed the farmers, crops would grow again. He had vowed to make five statues of Yakushi Nyorai, but was soon called back to the court in Kyoto and could not fulfill his vow. So he entrusted Tokuitsu with the job.
There is no proof that Kukai really went to Aizu, though. Now all the five Yakushi Temples of Aizu belong to the Shingon sect 真言宗寺院.

. Kobo Daishi, Kukai 弘法大師　空海 . - . (774 - 835)



gobutsu Yakushi Nyorai　五佛薬師如来

- reference : www.aizue.net/jyunrei
- reference : ibabun.com/aruku


. Legends of the Heian Period (794 to 1185) 平安時代の伝説 .

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center - Shoojooji 勝常寺 Shojo-Ji
瑠璃光山 -
湯川村大字勝常字代舞1764



One of the oldest Buddhist temples in the Tohoku region, Shojo-ji was founded by High Priest Tokuichi in 807. The existing "Kodo" Hall, reconstructed in 1398, is known as the "Aizu Central Yakushido." All Buddhist images enshrined here date back to the temple's founding. It is rare that so many early-Heian-period Buddhist images are well preserved at one place.
©　www.pref.fukushima.jp



source :　blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kominguokuaizu

- Details of the temple
- source : www.aizue.net

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East - Enichiji 慧日寺 Enichi-Ji
磐梯町大字磐梯字本寺上4950

丈六薬師如来

- quote
Enichi-ji Temple was established by Tokuitsu-daishi who diffused Buddhism in Aizu. It is the oldest temple among those whose established ages are identified in Tōhoku region. A plan to reconstruct the temple at the historical site was forwarded, as the ancient Kondō Hall was reestablished in 2008 and has become a symbolic building in Bandai Town.
- source : www.aizu-concierge.com

See the article below about Kukai Kobo Daishi, priest Tokuitsu and the fighting with the Emishi people in the Tohoku region by the imperial government in Kyoto.


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West - Kami Unai Yakushi Doo 上宇内薬師堂 Kami-Unai Yakushi Do Hall
調合寺　- 瑠璃光山

会津坂下町大字大上字村北

One of the buildings of temple 高寺の「高寺三十六坊」. But temple 高寺 later fell into decline and only temple 調合寺 survived.
Now there is a statue of Amida Nyorai.
Nearby temple 浄泉禅寺 takes care of this one too.

The Yakushi Hall has been founded by Tokuitsu in 807. The Statue is a keyaki wooden statue of 1.67 meter hight.


source :　blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kominguokuaizu


The statue of a seated Yakushi had been restored in 1958. It is 2 meters high.
It is now in a special museum in the temple compound.

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North 北山薬師 Kitayama Yakushi
Taishooji 大正寺　Taisho-Ji

北塩原村大字北山字寺ノ前4590

Also called 　"漆大正寺"
Kobo Daishi Kukai founded the Kitayama Yakushido Hall 北山薬師堂, where the standing statue of Yakushi Nyorai was venerated.
During 1558 - 1569 the temple was taken over by the 浄土宗. In 1600 It was taken back by the Tendai sect due to the protection of priest 常海.
During the years 1596 - 1614 the Gamo clan took care of the temple.

Mine no Yakushi 峯の薬師 "Yakushi on the mountain peak"
Famous for 　"二つ児参り".

The main festival is on September 8/9, with a mikoshi palanquin parade through the village.

The first son of the lord Gamoo Hideyuki 蒲生秀行 Gamo Hideyuki (1583 - 1612), Kamechiyomaru 亀千代丸 was very weak, so his father came here to pray with him. On the way back he placed the boy on a large boulder by the roadside and what do you know . .. he got better in an instant. So this stone is now called



kosodate ishi 子育て石 stone for child rearing


- quote
Gamo Hideyuki - Gamō Hideyuki
Hideyuki was the son of Gamô Ujisato 蒲生氏郷　and inherited his father's fief at Aizu (420,000 koku) in 1596.
He was a Christian, and transferred to Utsunomiya in Shimotsuke province in 1598, thereby suffering a loss of income to 180,000-koku. It is not clear why Hideyoshi moved the young Hideyuki, but he may have hoped that by moving the experienced Uesugi Kagekatsu to Aizu in Hideyuki's place, Tokugawa Ieyasu's regional supremacy would be offset.
Hideyuki supported Tokugawa during the Sekigahara Campaign, and while he saw little fighting nonetheless received Aizu (600,000 koku) as a reward.



His son Tadasato succeeded him in 1612.
When Hideyuki's 2nd son Tadamoto died, the Gamô line came to an end.
- source : wiki.samurai-archives.com


- reference : www.aizue.net/sityouson

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South - Nodera Yakushi 野寺薬師 "Yakushi in a temple in the wilderness"
Jikooji 慈光寺　Jiko-Ji - 広沢山慈光寺

会津若松市門田町堤沢字上村
会津若松市門田町大字堤沢709

It used to be on the top of mount 屯台平山


source :　ibabun.com/aruku65

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なゝくさや明日は野寺の初薬師
nanakusa ya asu wa nodera no hatsu-yakushi

gruel of seven herbs for spring -
tomorrow at the lone temple
first ceremony of the Healing Buddha

Matsuoka Seira 松岡青蘿(1740-1791)
ttp://www.geocities.jp/haikunomori/chuko/seira.html


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Aizu Wakamatsu Juuni Yakushi Mairi　会津若松　- 十二薬師巡り 12 Yakushi temples

01 - Enichiji 慧日寺 Enichi-Ji (see above : East)

02 - 北山薬師 Kitayama Yakushi (see above: North)
Taishooji 大正寺　Taisho-Ji

第三番中禅寺薬師如来（中禅寺・８８㎝・寄木造り）

04 - Shoojooji 勝常寺 Shojo-Ji (see above: Center)
瑠璃光山 -

第五番定徳寺薬師如来（一木造り）

06 - Kami Unai Yakushi Doo 上宇内薬師堂 Kami-Unai Yakushi Do Hall (see above: West)
Mine no Yakushi 峯の薬師 "Yakushi on the mountain peak"
調合寺　- 瑠璃光山

第七番杉薬師如来（薬王寺・桂材一木造）Yakuo-Ji
第八番田子薬師如来（常福院・漆箔・寄木造）
第九番中田薬師如来（弘安院）
第十番延命薬師如来（延命寺）Enmei Yakushi Nyorai / Enmei-Ji

11 - Nodera Yakushi 野寺薬師 "Yakushi in a temple in the wilderness"
Jikooji 慈光寺　Jiko-Ji　(see above: South)

第十二番高田薬師如来（薬師寺）Yakushi-Ji


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会津ころり三観音 Aizu Korori San Kannon
Three Kannon statues to grant a sudden death

大沼郡会津美里町根岸の 弘安寺（中田観音）- Kooanji 弘安寺 Koan-Ji
河沼郡会津坂下町塔寺の 恵隆寺（立木観音）- Eryuuji 恵隆寺 Eryu-Ji
耶麻郡西会津町野沢の 如法寺（鳥追観音）- Nyohooji 如法寺 Nyoho-Ji

- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !


. korori Kannon ころり観音　/ コロリ観音　Kannon Bosatsu granting a sudden death .

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East - Enichiji 慧日寺 Enichi-Ji

- quote
ENICHIJI IN THE HEIAN PERIOD
In the absence of written records, we cannot be sure when or by whom Enichiji was established. Its two major founding legends claim that it dates from the beginning of the ninth century; and while temples commonly exaggerate their own antiquity, the discovery of ninth-century pottery in remains of Enichiji buildings suggests that the traditional date is not far off the mark.



Enichiji's founders, whoever they may have been, built their temple at the foot of Mt. Bandai, a mountain viewed as sacred in local folk belief. The kami (deity) of the mountain was worshipped at BANDAI SHRINE, now located at the site of the Heian temple's central complex.
Under its original name of Iwaki or Iwahashi shrine, it appears in the early tenth-century Engi Shiki as a government-sanctioned institution. By this time it is likely that the shrine and Enichiji had formed a close partnership--a common phenomenon in pre-modern Japan, when "Buddhism" and "Shinto" were not clearly distinguished, and temples and shrines often shared the same precincts.

Enichiji's close relationship to the mountain kami is suggested by one of its two founding legends, an account that appears in the nineteenth-century Shinpen Aizu Fuudoki. The legend also suggests that the temple was regarded as a holy site that protected the region against illness, famine, and other natural disasters:

At one time an evil spirit lived on Mount Bandai, called at that time the Mountain of Pestilence. The evil spirit destroyed the local rice crops, and if that were not bad enough, a lake suddenly materialized at the foot of the mountain, inundating the houses built there. The imperial court in Kyoto heard about the matter and in 807, dispatched the Shingon Buddhist master Kuukai to reverse the disasters.

For ten days, Kuukai performed an ascetic regimen in a village nearby. His practice drove off the evil spirit. Kuukai then renamed the mountain Bandai, and built a temple at its foot to ward off further disaster. Choosing the exact spot through divination, he constructed the temple, enshrining images of the Buddha YAKUSHI, the bodhisattvas Nikkou and Gakkou, and Buddhist guardian figures--the Four Heavenly Kings and the Twelve Generals. Kuukai was then rewarded with a manifestation of the mountain kami, whom he named Bandai Myoujin (Bandai Myojin).

A more commonly-accepted story claims that the temple was founded in 806 by TOKUICHI, a monk from the Nara temple Koufukuji who is also credited with establishing several other temples in the area around the same time. The Kuukai legend probably originated in later years, when the temple became affiliated with the Shingon school. We cannot verify Tokuichi's founding role, but a monk or monks from one of Japan's central Buddhist institutions may in fact have established the temple in cooperation with local notables.

Like other provincial Buddhist temples, Enichiji may have been a vehicle for extending government power to remote locations. Wary of religious institutions not under its own control, Japan's imperial government in Kyoto incorporated existing provincial shrines and temples into its own systems, or established new ones to "convert" local people and lay claim to their loyalty. Enichiji was not a large temple in comparison to temples in Kyoto or in Nara, the eighth- century capital; but it was large enough to have been expensive to build. Moreover, the central image of Yakushi at Enichiji's nearby sister temple of SHOUJOUJI, thought to be a twin of Enichiji's central image, is an early Heian figure of great sophistication. The elegance of the gilt-wood image suggests that it was made by skilled artists, perhaps from the same atelier as sculptors of similar images in powerful Kyoto and Nara temples. Although the evidence is very sparse, it points to the involvement of the court or court-sponsored Buddhist institutions in Enichiji's founding.

Another possible source of support was the regional notable class, composed of both indigenous families and officials dispatched by the court who had settled in the area. The conflicts between local families and powerful newcomers were sometimes settled by establishing common religious institutions, where local deities shared space with those who had come from outside. In any case, once Enichiji was established, local support was crucial to its existence. Local histories such as the Fuudoki list lay representatives of the temple who were allocated income from temple holdings at the end of the twelfth century, presumably in return for protecting temple interests. Enichiji's long period of prosperity--at least through the twelfth century and perhaps even longer than that--suggests that local support was quite powerful indeed.

The founding of Enichiji and other Aizu-region temples in the early Heian period may have had a military purpose. During the eighth and ninth centuries, the imperial court made war on the Emishi, people who resisted its control, and pushed them further and further northward. The Emishi fought back fiercely in the Touhoku regions to the north of Aizu. Tagajou, the capital of Mutsu (Aizu's province), was one center for campaigns against the Emishi. The Aizu region does not seem to have been a battle site, but it supplied the court's armies, and a ninth-century mokkan (record written on a strip of wood) recounts the service of Aizu soldiers at Tagajou. Although armies under the command of the legendary hero Sakanoue Tamuramaro largely brought the Mutsu Emishi under control in the early ninth century, they held out for some time in the province of Dewa, just over the mountains north of Aizu.

Under the circumstances, it must have seemed sensible for the court and their local allies to construct Buddhist temples in strategic regions such as Aizu. For one thing, converting the Emishi to Buddhism helped to pacify them, since Japanese Buddhism was bundled in a cultural package that engendered a peaceful agrarian life and obedience to central authority. In addition, Buddhist temples served as court outposts, often serving local government functions. It may be legend, not fact, that several Aizu temples were founded in the first decade of the ninth century by Tokuichi, a representative of the central power structure. But the kernel of truth in the legend, perhaps, is that central authorities sponsored temple construction in Aizu to shore up government power in a crucial region.

What role did Enichiji play in the political and economic life of the Aizu people? In the absence of definitive evidence we cannot be sure, but several artifacts in the temple's possession--described in Shinpen Aizu Fuudoki but unfortunately now lost--suggest what this role may have been.

According to the Fudoki, Enichiji held four gold seals, all said to have been issued by the imperial court--three of them in the ninth century and one in the late eleventh. The seal issued during the reign of the Emperor Junna (r. 823-833) is inscribed "seal of Amarue village"-- designating, perhaps, an as-yet unidentified village in the Aizu region. The historian Takahashi Tomio explains that the holder of a village seal had to be a district or village official, indicating that the temple performed some local government functions. Another artifact described in Fuudoki that indicates the temple's public authority is a stick nine sun eight bu in length (one sun = approximately 1.2 inches; one bu = 1/10 sun). About five sun of the stick is notched to make a ruler in a standard length for the period. Enichiji's possession of this type of ruler, used in government land surveys, suggests that the temple supervised the distribution of land in the surrounding area.

As a religious institution, Enichiji centered its rituals on Yakushi, the Buddha of healing. The practical aspects of a healing cult made the worship of Yakushi popular in the Nara monasteries, and easy to spread northward. One of Enichiji's sources of power, perhaps, was that its main object of worship soothed the fear of disease. In the Heian period, moreover, Enichiji adopted tantric Buddhism, with its emphasis on magic and ritual and its natural appeal to people of all social classes.

Although tantric practice affected almost all Buddhist institutions in Japan in the Heian period, it is largely associated with the Tendai and Shingon schools, introduced into Japan from China at the beginning of the ninth century. Tendai and Shingon soon came to rival the formerly-dominant Buddhist schools located in several great monasteries in Nara. . . . The new schools both expanded their influence into the Touhoku region, and Enichiji probably affiliated with one or the other in mid-Heian-- Tendai initially, perhaps, and later Shingon.

Enichiji prospered throughout the middle and late Heian periods. A medieval painting depicts the temple in its days of glory. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, another complex of politico-religious power was arising further to the north. This was the famous HIRAIZUMI, home to the regional warlords Northern Fujiwara and their temple Chuusonji, a center of Pure Land Buddhism--the worship of AMIDA. No doubt the Northern Fujiwara wanted to extend their influence to Aizu but they do not seem to have done so before the end of the twelfth century. In the Kamakura period, some religious sculpture--such as the Amida image at GANJOUJI in Kitakata -- followed the Hiraizumi style, but that does not seem to have been the case in Heian times. The political and religious power of Enichiji probably stalled the extension of even the cultural influence of Hiraizumi.

If this was so, how did Enichiji hold out against the powerful Fujiwara warlords? One way was to make an alliance with other warlords, and apparently this is what the temple did. Under the leadership of Joutanbou, who commanded Enichiji's soldier-monks, the temple combined forces with a warrior family called the Jou.

Although Enichiji's soldiers had once opposed the Jou -- defeating their efforts to extend their power into Aizu in a war in the late tenth century -- by the 1170s the threat of Hiraizumi power seems to have brought the former enemies together. In 1172 the head of the Jou family commended seventy-five villages of a shouen in Echigo province to Enichiji. Unfortunately this alliance placed Enichiji on the wrong side of a military rivalry that culminated in civil conflict, the GENPEI WAR of 1181-1185. According to evidence from the war tale Heike Monogatari and Gyokuyou, the diary of the courtier Kujou Kanezane, the combined forces of the Jou and Enichiji were overcome in 1182 by warriors under the leadership of Kiso Yoshinaka of the Genji clan. Here is how the Heike describes the final battle:

. . . the Genji made a gradual approach. At a signal, the seven [Genji] bands merged into one, shouted a great battle cry all together, and whipped up the white banners they had kept in readiness. The Echigo warriors blanched. "There must be hundreds of thousands of them. What shall we do?" they said in a panic. Some were driven into the river; others were chased over cliffs. Those who survived were few; those who perished were many. Enemy weapons felled Yama no Tarou of Echigo, Joutanbou of Aizu, and all the other famous warriors on whom Nagashige [the Jou leader] had relied most heavily. (McCullough, tsl., The Tale of the Heike, page 223.)

This, according to standard accounts, was the beginning of Enichiji decline. After their victory in the Genpei War made the Genji under Minamoto Yoritomo the paramount military power in Japan, Yoritomo placed the Aizu region under the control of his followers. Did Enichiji then lose its holdings as is sometimes claimed? It seems unlikely that it did, since the medieval painting provides evidence of Enichiji prosperity throughout later ages.
- source : www.cs.csustan.edu

Aizu History Project
A team of historians and computer specialists from the University of Aizu (Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan) and from Applied Cad/Art (Eugene, Oregon, USA) is developing educational software on Japanese history, focusing on the Aizu region.
- source : www.cs.csustan.edu


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. Pilgrimages to Fudo Temples 不動明王巡礼
Fudo Myo-O Junrei - Fudo Pilgrims - INTRODUCTION .


. Japan - Shrines and Temples - ABC .


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