Cultural Assets－Temples and Shrines

Kannon-ji Temple is located along the shortest route from Mount Nijo to Kamenose. The temple is one of only a few esoteric Shingon-school temples in Kashiba. Its precincts contain a statue of En no Gyoja, and Shugendo practitioners have made offerings of hide (wooden plaques as proof of their visit) at adjacent Miwa-jinja Shrine. The temple’s principal object of worship is a standing wooden statue of Juichimen Senju Kannon (an 11-faced, thousand-armed goddess of mercy), which is believed to date to the Muromachi Period (1338 to 1573). Legend holds that the Kannon statue was damaged on behalf of Kusunoki Masashige when the samurai took an enemy’s arrow in the 14th century. For this reason, worshipers believe in its efficacy in warding off evil, referring to it as the Ya-uke Kannon (“arrow-catching Kannon”) or Migawari Kannon (“sacrificial Kannon”).