Sennin Gyoei Koji

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. sennin　仙人と伝説 Legends about Immortals .
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Gyooei Koji 行叡居士 Gyoei Koji

He is Nr. 13 of
. 日本の仙人37人 - The 37 Immortals of Japan .

The dates of his life are not clear. He was a monk, maybe living in the Asuka or Nara period.
He lived in a hermitage in the 東山山麓 Higashiyama Mountain range in 山城国愛宕郡八坂郷 Yasaka, Atago district of Yamashiro no Kuni.
In 778 priest 延鎮 Enchin came to visit him.
Gyoei gave Enchin a precious piece of wood and soon after he left for the Eastern Provinces and was not seen again.
Enchin was involved in the building of temple 清水寺 Kiyomizudera, together with Sakanoue no Tamuramaro.



清水寺　観音像　Kiyomizu Kannon

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It was said that Kiyomisu Dera was found by a Nara monk named Enchin who practiced asceticism in 778.
He met a Buddhist old recluse called Gyoei Koji while wandering nearby Otowa-ni-taki waterfall, to look for a site with a golden stream to build a temple, after being inspired in a dream.
Gyoei told him that he was a devotee to Kannon Bodhisattva and had been waiting for him to come as he was to leave. He presented the monk a piece of wood and left.
Monk Enchin soon found a pair of sandals on top of the hill and realized that the old hermit was a Bodhisattva.
The monk Enchin later created an image of eleven headed thousand armed image of Kannon and carved it on the sacred log given to him by Gyoei, and built a little hut to house it.
One day, General Sakanone Tamuramaro (758-811) happened to pass by the waterfall when hunting a deer. He met Enchin. Seeing him killing a deer and carrying it in hand, the monk delivered him a Dharma talk and lectured him with merciful teaching of Kannon Bodhisattva. General Tamuramaro repented and became a pious disciple to Enchin, devoted and in faith to Kannon. He donated a proper hall to enshrine the image of Kannon by dismantling his own house and in year 794, he contributed to the master
The Emperor's old residence that was gifted to him after the emperor built a new palace when moved to Kyoto. The building was made into the main shrine hall of the temple.
- source : ANICCA -

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. Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺 Kyoto .


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. Japanese Legends - 伝説　民話　昔話 – ABC-List .



. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro 坂上田村麻呂 .
(758 - 811)
conquering the Emishi (蝦夷征伐 Emishi Seibatsu) in Tohoku.


................................................................................. Fukushima 福島県　
田村郡 Tamura district 三春町 Miharu

kinma 木馬（きんま) "wooden horse"
Tamuramaro fought against the local tribesman, 大多鬼丸」（大滝丸） Otaki Maru, who lived in a cave at 大滝根山 Mount Otakine san (1,192 m).
延鎮上人 Saint Enchin had carved the statue of Kannon at temple Kiyomizudera and from the left-over pieces of wood had carved 鞍馬 100 wooden horses with saddles and sent them to Tamuramaro. Tamuramaro put the horses in his armor and left for Tohoku. When he was in a pinch fighting, all of a sudden 100 horsemen came out and helped him fight at Mount Otakine.
When he returned in triumph, the horses had disappeared from his armor.
One day later, one of the wooden horses was found all sweating at 高柴村 Takanomura village near 三春 Miharu. A man named 杵阿弥 Kiami realized it was one of the wooden horses given by Enchin and out of piety he carved the other 99 anew.
Three years later, the one horse became missing. The family of Kiami still preserves the memory of the wooden horses.
When they gave a horse to a family with an ill child, the child got well very soon. Now the horses are a kind of amulet for bringing up healthy children in Miharu.



People kept them as talismans for an easy birth of their horses.
They also build statues of a Kannon with a horsehead (Bato Kannon) at the entrance of their villages to protect their animals.

. Miharu koma 三春駒 horses from Miharu .

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- reference : Nichibun Yokai Database -

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. sennin 天狗と仙人伝説 Legends about Tengu and Immortals .

. sennin　仙人と伝説 Legends about Immortals .


. Japan - Shrines and Temples - Index .


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