Cultural Assets－Sutra Mounds

Sutra mound #4. An Izumi sandstone monument engraved with “Bun’an 5” (the year 1448) stands in Hannan’s Yamanakadani area, which neighbors the Sakaidani area of Iwade City. According to the Katsurei-zakki guidebook of 1850, a Shugendo training site called Iriejuku-jizo was the location of the 4th sutra mound. This was in Yamanaka Village (now Yamanakadani, Hannan City). The sutra mound was marked by an old sakura (cherry blossom) tree, and thus was called Sakura Jizo.
Others believe that sutra mound #4 is in fact near the site of the old Yamanaka Checkpoint on the Kumano-kodo Road. There you’ll find a stone monument engraved with “Eiroku 12” (the year 1569) marking the offering of a sutra here. This monument commemorates monks who made a pilgrimage of 66 sacred sites related to the Lotus Sutra. Documents like the Katsuragi Kaihoroku—a survey of the Katsuragi Shugen sites published in 1989—identify this place as the location of sutra mound #4.