Ishiyama-dera from the Picture Album of the Thirty-Three Pilgrimage Places of the Western Provinces

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Japanese Color Woodblock Print

Ishiyama-dera (temple 13)

from the Picture Album of the Thirty-Three Pilgrimage Places of the Western Provinces

by Nakazawa Hiromitsu, 1925

Illustrated Account of the Sino-Japanese War, Volume 7

IHL Cat. #2320

IHL Cat. #2413.21

(from the complete 1925 album of prints IHL Cat. #2413)

About This Print

Sources: The Hyoga Times http://www.hyogoajet.net/hyogotimes/category/columns/saigoku-kannon-pilgrimage/

Founded in 749, Ishiyama-dera, located on the southern edge of Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture (previously known as Ōmi province), is the 13th temple on the Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage route. It is built on and amongst wollastonite rock formations (formed when limestone are subjected high temperature such as magma) which Nakazawa has depicted in the foreground. It is famously the place where Murasaki Shikibu began to write the classic Tale of Genji on the night of the full moon, August 1004. To commemorate this event, the temple maintains a Genji Room with a life-size figure of the author at work.

The main enshrined image (honzon) of the temple is the bodhisattva Kannon Chokufūnihinyoirin.

The Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage (Saigoku sanjūsansho junrei)

Sources: website of cultural anthropologist Martin Gray http://www.taleofgenji.org/saigoku_pilgrimage.html and "Buddhist Pilgrim/Buddhist Exile: Old and New Images of Retired Emperor Kazan in the Saigoku Kannon Temple Guidebooks," Mark MacWilliams, appearing in History of Religions, May, 1995, Vol. 34, No. 4, The University of Chicago Press, p. 303-328.

Japan's most famous pilgrimage, originating in the 11th century, encompasses 33 Buddhist temples in Western Japan (Kansai region) dedicated to Kannon (bodhisattva Avalokitasvara), the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who hears the cries of the world and assists anyone in distress.

The 33 temples on the approximately 1,000 kilometer pilgrimage route correspond to Kannon's ability to take on 33 different forms. One hundred thousand pilgrims navigate the route in its entirety or part each year.

Note: For a listing of all 33 temples go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saigoku_Kannon_Pilgrimage. To access an interactive map of the route and its temples go to https://www.thetempleguy.org/p/saigoku-33-kannon-route.html and scroll down towards the bottom of the page.

About the "Picture Album of the Thirty-Three Pilgrimage Places of the Western Provinces"

First issued in 1925 and reprinted in 1946, the 1925 album contains 58 prints and the 1946 album 59 prints. For detailed discussion of the two editions and additional information on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage see this site's article Nakazawa Hiromitsu - Picture Album of the Thirty-Three Pilgrimage Places of the Western Provinces.