Kando-ji Temple 23 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

 

Kandoji, is a fairly small and nondescript temple in the south of Izumo City. As well as being temple 23 on the Chugoku Kannon pilgrimage, it is also temple number 5 on the much older Izumo Kannon Pilgrimage. The post from my earlier visit is here.

Though now quite modest, it was in ancient times very large and powerful and is said to have had a strong relationship with Izumo Taisha, but I know that in 15th and 16th centuries Gakuenji Temple oversaw Izumo Taisha. It is said that it was the foremost temple in the San-in region.

Said to have been founded in 781 by Socho. Amazingly, it is claimed that Saicho, the founder of Hiezan and the Tendai sect and a contemporary of Kobo Daishi, was the second abbot of the temple, and that Kobo Daishi himself was the third.

Another claim is that Kobo Daishi wrote the Iroha while here and a copy in his handwriting is owned by the temple. The Iroha was a poem for memorizing the kana syllabary that Kobo Daishi is said to have created. It can be thought of as a Japanese version of the Alphabet Song in English. Not too long ago I posted on another temple claiming to be where he wrote the Iroha, Dogakuji Temple in Tokushima. Historians are of the opinion that the Iroha was composed hundreds of years after the time of Kobo Daishi.

The temple converted to the Jodo sect. It has an Amida as its honzon, said to have been carved by Gyoki. The 11-faced Kannon in the Kannon Hall is a secret Buddha.

The previous post in this series on day 40 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the nearby Umaki Fudoson, one of the top 3 Fudo's in Japan.

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