Sugimoto-dera

Sugimoto-dera
The Main Hall (Hon-dō)
Basic information
Location	903 Nikaidō, Kamakura, Kanagawa 248-0002
Affiliation	Tendai
Deity	Jūichimen Kannon (Eleven-Headed Kannon)
Country	Japan
Architectural description
Founder	Emperor Kōmyō (?)
Completed	734 (?)

Sugimoto-dera (大蔵山観音院杉本寺, Taizō-zan Kannon-in Sugimoto-dera^?) is a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the oldest temple in Kamakura and, together with Hōkai-ji, the only one of the Tendai denomination. The temple is Number one of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage circuit. Two of the three statues of goddess Kannon it enshrines are Important Cultural Properties. Sugimotodera is nicknamed Geba Kannon ("Dismount Kannon"), because horsemen never failed to dismount from their steeds when they passed by. (According to a different version of the legend, non-believers always fell from their horse when passing in front of the temple.) The temple is a branch temple (寺末, matsuji^?) of Hōkai-ji.

According to the temple's own records, Sugimoto-dera was founded in 734 by priest Gyōki on orders by Emperor Shōmu, and is therefore the oldest of Kamakura's temples, predating the shogunate by half a millennium. The records say that in the 8th century priest Gyōki was crossing the Kantō region on foot when he saw Kamakura from Mount Taizō (the Taizōzan in the temple's name) and decided to leave there a statue of goddess Kannon. He then carved and enshrined it himself. Later in 734, Emperor Shōmu was told by the goddess herself to build here a temple (the Hon-dō). Later, the temple was restored by Ennin (794–864), and Eshin Sōzu Genshin (942–1017) enshrined in it a statue of Eleven-faced Kannon, an event that made the temple surge to Number one of the Sanjusankasho pilgrimage circuit.

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