is a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

of the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

sect located in the city of

Shibukawa is a city in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 76,098 in 32,439 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Shibukawa is the location of Ikaho Onsen, a popular hot spring resort. ...

Gunma Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of . Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fuk ...

, Japan. Its ''

honzon , sometimes referred to as a Gohonzon ( or ), is the enshrined main image or principal deity in Japanese Buddhism. The buddha, bodhisattva, or mandala image is located in either a temple or a household butsudan. The image can be either a statue ...

'' is a bronze statue of . The temple is also referred to as simply the . It is the 16th stop on the

Bandō Sanjūsankasho The ("The Bandō 33 Kannon Pilgrimage") is a series of 33 Buddhist temples in Eastern Japan sacred to Kannon. Bandō is the old name for what is now the Kantō region,Donald Richie used in this case because the temples are all in the Prefecture ...

pilgrimage route of 33 temples sacred to Kannon in the Kantō region.

History

The foundation of the temple is uncertain and all ancient documentary evidence pre-dating the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

has been lost. According to temple's own legend, it was founded in the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

under the sponsorship of the ''Kokushi'' of

Kōzuke province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered Echigo Province, Echigo, Shinano Province, Shinano, Musashi Province, Musashi and Shimotsuke Province, Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abb ...

Takanobe Ienari. during the reign of

Empress Suiko (554 – 15 April 628) was the 33rd monarch of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō''): She introduced Buddhism in Japan and built many Buddhist temples, but she held the balance between Buddhism and Shintoism. Under her rule, Japan ...

, who invited

Ekan Hyegwan (Japanese: was a priest who came across the sea from Goguryeo to Japan in the Asuka period. He is known for introducing the Chinese Buddhist school of Sanlun to Japan. Hyegwan studied under Jizang and learned Sanron. In 625 (the 33rd y ...

, a high-ranking prelate from

Goguryeo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...

to introduce Buddhism to the region. The ''honzon'' statue of Kannon Bosatsu is said to have been then personal statue of his daughter, Ikaho-hime. The temple has been destroyed by fires several times in its history. The temple’s two-story Rokkaku-dō with a hexagonal base is registered as a Gunma Prefectural Important Cultural Property. It contains a rotating sutra library on its ground floor and a state of Dainichi Nyōrai on its second story.

Gallery

Mizusawa Nioh.JPG, Niō-mon Mizusawa-dera Rokkakudo 02.jpg, Rokkaku-dō Mizusawa Syourou.JPG, Bonshō Mizusawa-dera Shakado 01.jpg, Shaka-dō

References

External links

Bando Pilgrimage site
{{Buddhist temples in Japan Buddhist temples in Gunma Prefecture Tendai temples Shibukawa, Gunma Kōzuke Province Gunma Prefecture designated tangible cultural property