After Raiko-ji Temple, I was walking along the foot of hills slightly downward. I found a road running along the bottom of a ravine. I walked along the street and found Sugimoto-Kannon Busstop. I was almost there, the #1 member temple of the Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, the second oldest 33 Kannon pilgrimage in Japan. The first temple of the second oldest pilgrimage! I was excited with high expectations. Only to find a mountain temple. In 734, Empress Asukabe (701-760) heard an oracle from Avalokitesvara, “The central rule hadn’t spread to eastern provinces yet. I wish you to contribute treasure to save people.” To establish public order there, she ordered Fujiwara Fusasaki (681-737), who was her brother and a minister, and Gyoki (668-749) to build temples there. Gyoki enshrined an eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue in Kamakura. Its hall came to be called Okura Kannon-do Hall. On November 23rd, 1189, the temple burned down but Monk Jodai rescued the Ekadasamukha statue from the fire and saved it under a Japanese cedar tree. Thereafter, the temple came to be called Sugimoto-dera, namely, Under Ceder Temple. In 1191, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) visited the ruins of the fire, and donated repair expenses. When Kamakura was invaded by Kitabatake Akiie (1318-1338) on his way from Mutsu Province to recapture Kyoto for Emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339), Shiba Ienaga (?-1337), the Regent of the Kamakura Office of the Ashikaga Shogunate, lost to Akiie and killed himself in the temple. Sugimoto-dera Temple is also the #1 member temple of the Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

One of the smaller temple in Kamakura but really lovely and a lot quieter than some of the most popular temples. Full of charms and small details. Delightful.