Vagabond Sara: A bus ride to Sugimoto-Dera

This unforgettable bus ride happened over the past weekend trip I took down to Kamakura City. Ruth and I woke up really early to finish up our weekend trip. We caught a city bus to get to Sugimoto-dera, the first buddhist site in Kamakura City. We're not overly sure on which bus stop we want to get off at, nor can we read the kanji, so we're intently listening, hoping it'll work out.

After about 4 minutes into the bus ride, the bus driver through his microphone for the rest of the bus to hear asks us in Japanese, "foreigners, foreigners, where are you getting off at?" We're incredible embarrassed, I mean, he's not just asking us where we're getting off, he's asking us over the loud speaker of the entire bus. I tell him, "Sugimoto-dera" He clarifies the spot and asks us, again, over the loud speaker, "where are you from?" I respond that I'm an American and Ruth responds she's from Scotland. Poor Ruth. No one ever knows where Scotland is. The bus driver's next question is, "that's near England, right?" Right. Then, a woman to the front right of us turns around and tells us our Japanese is good. The bus driver doesn't stop there. Soon, we're explaining that we're English teachers, that we live in Miyagi, our basic "why are you in Japan" life stories. Again, in front of the entire bus. We had an audience. This went on for probably a total of 3 minutes, the conversation over the loud speaker and us shouting up to the front of the bus. Of course, we couldn't understand everything he was saying; some of his comments weren't understood by us, but the rest of the bus was laughing at what he was saying. We provided good entertainment for people at 10am. Well, atleast we got off at the right stop. It was a funny start to a great day.

A bit of history about the temple we went to see, complete with pictures.

In Spring 734, Sugimoto-dera was founded by Fusasaki Fujiwara, minister of the Imperial Court and priest, Bodhisattva Gyoki to meet the wish of Empress Komyo. This Bodhisattva enshrined the first Juichi-men Kannon - an image of Buddha that embodied 11 faces in which he carved himself.

In 851, priest Ennin stayed in the temple. He carved the second one of these and enshrined it.

In 985, Emperor Kazan ordered priest Genshin-Eshin Sozu to carve and enshrine the third one. Afterwards, he designated the temple as the first amulet distributing office of the Eastern part of Japan. The Emperor himself made him pilgrimage to see it. Since then, the temple has been visited by a great number of pilgrims.

On the night of November 23, 1189, a fire broke out. According to a legend, those 3 principle images of Buddha mentioned above hid themselves under a huge cedar tree. This legend derives from Azumakagami - the 1st official documents compiled by the Samurai federal government. They have since been called Sugimoto-no-Kannan or the Kannons under the cedar.

On September 18, 1191, a ceremony was helf for miracles in all ages when Shogun Minamoto no Yorimoto reconstructed the lost Kannon hall. The 3 Kannons were enshrined in the inner-back and the juichi-men-Kannon at the height of nearly 7 feet in the front.

The first Kannon used to be called "Geba-Kannon" - the geba meaning "dismounting a horse" - this is to caution people against their faithlessness of riding horseback into precincts because they were believed to fall off their horses. Zen Master Daigaku, founder of another shrine called Kenchoji, once stayed in this hall. He prayed that these horse accidents would cease. The Kannon has since been called "Fukumen-Kannon" or the masked Kannon.