Japan Navigator

In the Tama Hills in the western part of Saitama Prefecture stands an old temple famous for the valuable Buddhist scriptures it possesses. Now only a remnant of a much larger complex, the temple also boasts an Eleven-Headed Kannon. When I visit, the doors of the altar cabinet happen to be wide open and the parishioners are having a cherry-blossom viewing party with karaoke and sake in front of the hall.

[Itabi on the way to Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Jikoji stands on a solitary hillside in western Saitama, far from the dreary bed towns that pockmark the modern face of the prefecture. It is remote from major roads or train lines, and the difficulty to reach it is doubly rewarded by its quiet and seclusion.

I climb Jikoji’s hill on a clear day in early spring, when the fresh green is just starting to appear, walking under the pink patches of cherry trees planted in the roadside. Due to the colder mountain air, the trees bloom later than Tokyo, where the season is already past. I relish my second spring.

[Sakura on the way to Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

After a bend in the road, I come across a row of gray stone steles, standing like sentry’s upright in the wayside. These are itabi, Buddhist road-markers. With Sanskrit letters the names of various Buddhas have been carved in the stones. Some also carry the dates and names of the believers who put them up. A century ago, there were still tens of thousands of such stones all over Japan. Now they have dwindled to a few specimens in museums. It is a surprise to find itabi in their original position, here on the road to Jikoji Temple. I feel as if touched by a breath from the past.

[Main Hall of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Jikoji stands on the last part of the hillside. High up is the Kannon Hall, halfway the modern Treasure House and the temple office. Where I enter the temple grounds, there is only a belfry, as the Amida Hall has burnt in recent years. Fires and other natural disasters have severely diminished the greatness of the temple over the centuries.

Jikoji was reputedly founded in 673, which would make it one of the oldest Buddhist establishments in the Kanto area. It soon grew into one of the largest as well. At its peak the temple possessed 75 halls, shrines and other buildings. Ennin came here in the ninth century and planted an ilex tree that still lives on in front of the temple office. Jikoji also had the fortune to be patronized by Minamoto no Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate. The temple bell, dating from 1245, is the oldest bell in the Kanto.

[Close-up of itabi, Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Old Scriptures
But the greatest treasures of Jikoji are the old sutras it possesses: a Heart Sutra from 871 and an ornately decorated thirteenth century Lotus Sutra, both forming the oldest extant sutras in the Kanto and qualifying as National Treasures. The sutras are kept in the concrete treasure house, where they (or rather their copies, for it is not possible to display these fragile, century-old scriptures for long, as ink and colors would fade) can be inspected.

They are veritable labors of love, like the handwritten, decorated books that medieval monks in Europe used to copy. It is a pity that such scrolls do not impress Westerners as much as they should, because it is impossible to read the Chinese characters.

[Grounds of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

To copy a scripture is a way to gain merit. Today in Japan, people still visit temples for sessions of shakyo, sutra copying. Others practice it in the quiet of their homes. Before there were printing presses, the custom must have served the function to preserve and propagate texts. Nowadays shakyo is often done by tracing the preprinted outline of the Chinese characters with a writing brush. Today, it still helps to provide us with a close reading, a thorough immersion into the text being copied.

Many, many sutras were copied in Jikoji, as is attested to by the circumstance that the area is a thriving center of washi, Japanese paper making: the paper industry originated in the need for paper for copying sutras.

[Main Hall of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Hannya Shingyo
Sutras are the threads that weave the Buddha’s teachings into everyday life. The historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, verbally handed down many teachings that later were written down by his followers. Therefore each sutra traditionally begins with the words “Thus I have heard.” It is presented as an account of the Buddha’s words as his listeners understood them.

The sutras that we find in Japan, all came by way of China and are therefore read in Chinese translations. The preferred sutra for shakyo practice is the Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyo), on the one hand because it is short (only 2 pages in Chinese) and on the other hand because it summarizes the central tenets of Japanese Buddhism.

The main theme is that all things are empty and that it is only our own filling of things with (false) attachment that makes them appear full. To realize this, means delivery. Earlier during my pilgrimage, I heard this sutra chanted at the early morning service in Enryakuji.

[Temple office of Jikoji Temple, Saitama]

Under the noise of pop songs, as if one of the picnickers has put up the volume of the radio, I climb the stairs to the Kannon Hall. A large assembly of villagers occupies the open space in front of the hall. People sit eating and drinking under a tent screen, while watching karaoke and dance performances on an improvised stage.

The performers are people from the neighborhood, who take turns on the stage. With a lot of feeling an old man performs a folksong, then a group of women appears colorfully dressed for a dance. Politely refusing an invitation to join the party I ascend the hall to catch a glimpse of the recently restored Kannon statue.

When I later descend the mountain of Jikoji, the gold letters on blue ground of the scriptures still shimmer before my eyes. Empty or full, on this balmy spring day all things of the world seem in perfect balance, echoing the temple’s name, Compassionate Radiance.

This post describes a visit that was made a number of years ago.

Jikoji is No. 9 on the Bando Kannon Temple Pilgrimage.

Address: 386 Nishi-daira, Toki Kawamura, Hiki-gun, Saitama-ken.
Tel. 0493-67-0040

Access: The nearest train station is Myokaku on the infrequently serviced JR Hachiko Line, so plan in advance with the help of a timetable.
The Hachiko Line can be reached in various ways: a) by Saikyo Line from Ebisu, Shibuya, Shinjuku or Ikebukuro to Kawagoe, and then the Kawagoe Line to Komagawa, where one can change to the Hachiko Line; b) by Tobu Tojo line from Ikebukuro to either Ogose (change at Sakado) or Ogiwamachi (connections less convenient than from Ogose).
From Myokaku take the Tokikawa Son’ei Bus (for information: tel. 0493-65-1535) to Nishi-daira bus stop.
From the stop it is a walk of about 40 minutes to the temple (walk a few meters along the road in the direction of the bus, then take the first road to the right. This road leads to the temple.)
If you catch the 10:38 bus from Myokaku, there is a bus back to the station from Nishi-daira at 14:10, which gives you ample of time to see the temple, the treasure house and have a picnic on the way.

The Kannon statue can be seen on April 17, and also on the second Sunday in April.

Trip idea: Due to traffic conditions, Jikoji takes most of the day. You can pay a short visit to Kawagoe at the end of the day, if you take the train passing through that town; or drop by in Ogiwamachi to see the papermaking.

Resources: Heart Sutra (Soto School), or this translation with Japanese transcription.