Bandō Sanjūsankasho
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The Bandō Sanjūsankasho (坂東三十三箇所?) ("The 33 Bandō Temples") is a series of 33 Buddhist temples in Eastern Japan sacred to Goddess Kannon. Bandō is the old name for what is now the Kantō region, used in this case because the temples are all in the Prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, Tokyo, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Chiba. As is the case with all such circuits, each location has a rank, and pilgrims believe that visiting them all in order is an act of great religious merit.
Started by Minamoto no Yoritomo and his son Sanetomo, the Bandō Sanjūsankasho is just one of 70 different Kannon pilgrimage circuits existing in Japan, each including 33 temples because the Goddess is believed to have 33 different manifestations. Sugimoto-dera in Kamakura is number one, Zushi's Gandenji's is number two, An'yō-in in Kamakura is the number three, the famous Hasedera in Hase number four, and so on. From its beginning at Sugimotodera to its end in Chiba's Nagodera, the circuit is over 1300 km long. Even though women were allowed to pray at individual temples, the circuit was originally reserved to male pilgrims. Now however most of the pilgrims are women. Pilgrims leave behind a slip of paper or a sticker as a proof of their visit, and many of these can be seen plastered on temple walls and pillars.
The 33 temples of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho circuit
- Number 1 - Sugimoto-dera, Kanagawa
- Number 2 - Ganden-ji, Kanagawa
- Number 3 - An'yō-in, Kanagawa
- Number 4 - Hase-dera (Kamakura, Kanagawa)
- Number 5 - Shōfuku-ji, Kanagawa
- Number 6 - Hasedera, Atsugi, Kanagawa
- Number 7 - Kōmyō-ji, Kanagawa
- Number 8 - Shōkoku-ji, Kanagawa
- Number 9 - Jikō-ji, Saitama
- Number 10 - Shōbō-ji, Saitama
- Number 11 - Anraku-ji, Saitama
- Number 12 - Jion-ji, Saitama
- Number 13 - Sensō-ji, Tokyo
- Number 14 - Gumyō-ji, Kanagawa
- Number 15 - Chōkoku-ji, Gunma
- Number 16 - Mizusawadera, Gunma
- Number 17 - Manganji, Tochigi
- Number 18 - Chūzen-ji, Tochigi
- Number 19 - Ōya-ji, Tochigi
- Number 20 - Saimyo-ji, Tochigi
- Number 21 - Nichirin-ji, Ibaraki
- Number 22 - Satakedera, Ibaraki
- Number 23 - Kanzeon-ji, Ibaraki
- Number 24 - Rakuhō-ji, Ibaraki
- Number 25 - Ōmi-dō, Ibaraki
- Number 26 - Kiyotaki-ji, Ibaraki
- Number 27 - Enpuku-ji, Chiba
- Number 28 - Ryushō-in, Chiba
- Number 29 - Chiba-dera, Chiba
- Number 30 - Kōzō-ji, Chiba
- Number 31 - Kasamori-ji, Chiba
- Number 32 - Kiyomizu-dera, Chiba
- Number 33 - Nago-dera, Chiba