Eleven-Headed Kannon

Chōkoku-ji (Iiyama Kannon)

Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Iiyama Kannon — the local name for Chōkoku-ji on the slopes of Mount Hakusan in Atsugi — has drawn pilgrims for some thirteen centuries....

Chōkoku-ji (Shiraiwa Kannon)

Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Chōkoku-ji at Shiraiwa, the Shiraiwa Kannon, is the fifteenth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage and one of the few remaining Shugendō-affiliated temples on the...

Daihō-ji

Kumakōgen, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Daihō-ji is the forty-fourth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and its symbolic midpoint, the Nakafudasho....

Dainichi-ji

Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Dainichi-ji stands directly across the road from Awa Ichinomiya Shrine, the highest-ranked Shintō shrine of Awa Province....

Enkō-ji (Myō-ō-in)

Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

Enkō-ji, also known as Myō-ō-in, sits on Atago-yama above the Kusado Sengen archaeological site in Fukuyama, Hiroshima....

Ganden-ji

Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Ganden-ji — locally known as Iwadono Kannon — is the second station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, set on a hilltop above Zushi....

Gumyō-ji

Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Gumyō-ji, the Gumyōji Kannon, is the fourteenth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage and Yokohama's oldest temple....

Hase-dera

Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan

Hase-dera is station 8 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon-shū Buzan-ha temple in Nara dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....

Hōchō-ji

Yokoze, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Hōchō-ji is the seventh station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama....

Hōju-ji

Saijō, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Hōju-ji is the 62nd fudasho on the Shikoku 88, an 8th-century imperial foundation that has been moved at least four times—by flood, war, Meiji separation, and the...

Imakumano Kannon-ji

Part of Sennyū-ji

Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Imakumano Kannon-ji is station 15 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism, Kumano cult temple in Kyoto dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....

Jōrin-ji

Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Jōrin-ji, seventeenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, is a small Sōtō Zen temple founded as an act of warrior repentance....

Kegon-ji

Ibigawa, Gifu Prefecture, Japan

Kegon-ji is station 33 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism temple in Gifu dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....

Ki-mii-dera

Sa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

Ki-mii-dera is station 2 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Kuze Kannon-shū temple in Wakayama dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....

Kinshō-ji

Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Kinshō-ji is the fourth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Saitama, Japan....

Kongojo-ji

Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Nagusayama Kongōjō-ji in Fukusaki, Hyōgo, traces its founding to 597 CE under the Korean monk Ekan during Empress Suiko's reign....

Kōnomine-ji

Yasuda, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Kōnomine-ji rests at 450 metres on Mt. Konomine, often described as the most physically demanding station on the Tosa stretch....

Nakayama-dera

Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Nakayama-dera is station 24 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism — Nakayama branch temple in Hyogo dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....

Nichirin-ji

Daigo, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan

Nichirin-ji sits on the eighth station of Mt. Yamizo, the highest peak in Ibaraki....

Rokuharamitsu-ji

Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Rokuharamitsu-ji is station 17 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism, Kūya nembutsu temple in Kyoto dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....

Ryuukou-ji

Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Ryūkō-ji is the forty-first temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of its most visible cases of shinbutsu-shūgō, the older Japanese practice of holding kami and Buddha...

Saimyō-ji

Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan

Saimyō-ji, station 20 of the Bandō Kannon pilgrimage, sits on the wooded slopes of Mt. Tokkō east of Mashiko....

Sairin-ji

Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Sairin-ji is the forty-eighth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and the Sekisho of Iyo, the spiritual checkpoint of the Iyo (Ehime) leg of the four-province circuit....

Saizen-ji

Yokoze, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Saizen-ji is the eighth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama. The Rinzai Zen temple of the Nanzen-ji school sits at the northern foot of Mt....

Sakami-ji

Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Izumi-shōzan Sagami-ji in Kasai, Hyōgo, was founded by imperial command in 745 after the priest Gyōki received an oracle from Sagami Myōjin, a local kami in the Sumiyoshi...

Sankaku-ji

Shikokuchūō, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Sankaku-ji sits at roughly 450 metres above the industrial coast of Shikokuchūō, the sixty-fifth temple of the Shikoku 88 and the last of twenty-six temples in Ehime....

Sanuki Kokubun-ji

Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Temple 80 Sanuki Kokubun-ji in Takamatsu is the working successor to one of the eighth-century kokubunji — the provincial protection-temples ordered by Emperor Shōmu in...

Shido-ji

Sanuki, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Shido-ji stands beside Shido Bay on the Sanuki coast as the eighty-sixth temple of the Shikoku circuit....

Shōfuku-ji

Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Shōfuku-ji — popularly known as Iizumi Kannon — is the fifth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho and one of the most active Shingon Kannon temples in Kanagawa....

Shōraku-ji (Senjū-in)

Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, Japan

Shōraku-ji, also known as Senju-in, sits on a low hill in Bizen and serves as Temple #3 of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. The honzon is a hibutsu Eleven-Faced Kannon....

Shōrin-ji

Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Shōrin-ji, fifteenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Kenchō-ji branch on the historic Banba-machi neighbourhood of central...

Sugimoto-dera

Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Sugimoto-dera is the first station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho — Kamakura's oldest Buddhist temple, where three Eleven-Headed Kannon statues from successive Heian centuries...

Taisan-ji

Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Temple 52 of the Shikoku henro stands northwest of Matsuyama in cypress and bamboo forest....

Tennō-ji

Sakaide, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Temple 79 Tennō-ji in Sakaide is named for the body of an emperor — Sutoku, exiled after the Hōgen Disturbance of 1156 and dead in Sanuki in 1164....

Yashima-ji

Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Yashima-ji crowns the mesa of Yashima, 293 metres above the Seto Inland Sea, and is the eighty-fourth temple of the Shikoku circuit....

Zenjibu-ji

Nankoku, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Zenjibu-ji rests on the cliff-edge of Hachiyō-san — Eight-Petalled Lotus Mountain — above Urado Bay....