Akiyamago straddles Tsunan-cho, Naka-uonuma-gun, Niigata Prefecture, and Sakae-mura, Sewerage-gun, Nagano Prefecture. It is one of Japan's 100 best-kept secrets, and is an area where the legend of the fallen Heike clans remains. The temple at Mitama, the entrance to Akiyamago from Niigata, is Shohoin, also known as Mitama Fudoson.
The splendid Niomon Gate and Kongorikishi. This historic temple is said to have been founded by a fallen member of the Heike clan the year after the Heike clan fell in the Battle of Dannoura. There is a unique folk belief about the Mitama Fudoson.
As I approached Niou-sama...
There's something white...
ベッチャリと付いています。何これ？鳥の糞？
No, no, actually this.
参拝者が濡らしてぶつけた「紙」の塊なんですよ！
How fearful you are to the Niou-sama (laughs).
According to the information board
Since some time ago, it has been customary for worshippers to wet a piece of paper with a caress from a sore spot on their body, wet it with the waterfall's Shizui and throw it at Niozonzon to ask him to save them from their pain.
Right. That's interesting.
仁王門の脇の滝。ここで濡らして投げつけるそう。私が行った時にも小さなお子さん連れの家族が頑張って投げつけていました。
仁王門をくぐると、本堂に続く石階段が。石段は70段。脇にはキレイな滝が流れています。
そして延命の水。
謹んでいただきました。
本堂には平家の守護神である不動明王が奉持されています。不動明王は、眼病に特に霊験があるようで、このお寺でも昔から多くの眼病治癒の逸話が残っているそうです。仁王門の前のお土産屋さんでも「メグスリの木」のお茶などが売っていました。
Did it start with stories about healing eye diseases and gradually become a temple where people prayed for their bodies to get better, giving rise to the custom of hitting Nioh-sama with a piece of paper?
本堂脇には菩薩様達が。5月でしたがまだ雪が残っているんですね。
I have also prayed well because my eyesight is not good.
However, the wet paper did not reach Nioh's eyes ... unfortunately.
ぜひ、秋山郷へ行く際には、この見玉不動尊に寄ってみてください。とても空気が澄んでいて落ち着ける場所ですよ。
Spotlight.
See Jade Immovable Dignity (Shobogenzoin)
- 9761 Akinari, Tsunan-cho, Naka-uonuma-gun, Niigata 949-8313, Japan
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