Kirihata-ji Temple

Kirihata-ji, formally Tokudozan Kanjoin, is Temple 10 of the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage. It stands partway up Mt. Kirihata, at an elevation of about 155 m, and the main hall is reached by climbing a little over 330 stone steps. The steps are also counted as 333 and are known as the Tsuenashi Bridge, the bridge where no walking stick is needed.

The names of the temple and its mountain come from a vivid tale about Kobo Daishi. While Kukai was in training, he asked a weaver girl for a scrap of cloth to mend his torn robe, and she cut her unfinished weaving and handed it over without hesitation. Moved by her heart, Kukai carved a Thousand-Armed Kannon for the repose of her parents, ordained her and gave her the kanjo initiation. The girl is said to have shone with seven-colored light, attained Buddhahood in this very body and become a Thousand-Armed Kannon herself. Later, by order of Emperor Saga, a hall was built, enshrining the Kannon carved by Kukai facing south and the Kannon of the girl facing north. The name of the mountain, Tokudo (ordination), the name of the sub-temple, Kanjo (initiation), and the temple name, Kirihata (cut cloth), all come from this story, and the temple is affectionately known as Hatakiri Kannon. Because of the tale of a woman attaining Buddhahood, many of its worshippers are women.

The highlight of the grounds is the Daito, or great pagoda, an Important Cultural Property. About 24 meters tall, it is a two-storied pagoda whose first and second stories are both square, and it is said to be the only surviving pagoda of this form in Japan. It was built in 1607 by Toyotomi Hideyori to pray for his late father Hideyoshi, as the west pagoda of Shinra-ji, the shrine temple of Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka. After the temple was abolished in the anti-Buddhist movement of the Meiji era, the pagoda was moved to this hillside between 1873 and 1882. From the pagoda you can look out over the Yoshino plain and the mountains toward Shozanji.

The main hall consists of a worship area with an earthen floor, the hall proper and an inner sanctuary, where a secret image of the Thousand-Armed Kannon is enshrined. Scattered around the grounds are the Daishi Hall, the Fudo Hall, the Hall of the Eight Dragon Kings, the Datsueba Hall and the bell tower, and there are the Men's and Women's Yaku slopes partway up the steps. On the spring and autumn equinoxes, a ceremony of floating wooden sutra tablets is held at the sutra-tablet place on the steps. The temple once had twenty-four sub-temples but burned in the Tensho era during Chosokabe Motochika's campaigns, and a fire in 1909 destroyed everything except the pagoda, so the present buildings date from the rebuilding. In 2024 the Awa Henro Trail, Kirihata-ji precincts, was designated a national historic site.

To get here, take a taxi from Kamojima Station on the JR Tokushima Line (about 25 minutes). By car, it is about 7 km from Tonari IC on the Tokushima Expressway, with free parking for about 20 cars by the gate; the upper lot is steep and suited to ordinary cars only. There is no lodging. Allow time for the steps and for the extra walk to the pagoda. It fits naturally into a pilgrimage route across the Awa plain, between Temple 9, Horin-ji, and Temple 11, Fujii-dera.