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Chomeizan-Jizoin-Tokuzoji
temple was founded by a priest called RyoyoDogen during Tensho
era(1573-91) of Azuchi-Momoyama period,during which Oda Nounaga
and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the two most important generals before
the Tokugawa shogunate,ruled the country.
@ Tradition
holds that when Dogen,an itinerant priest,happened to be around Osaki,he
was inspired that it should be the place for him to settle down and
build a hermitage.The image fo Amida Nyorai and those flanking it
images of Kannon Bosatsu and Seishi Bosatsu all of which are housed
in the temple,are thought to be the ones that Dogen personally enshrined
in his original hermitage.
@Five Koshintos(small
pagodas on which characters or images are engraved to remind common
people of the importance of continence and self-discipline)in the
templeyard are acknowedged as important cultural assets of Shinagawa
ward.The oldest of thhem was built in the twelfth year of Kan'ei(1635)
and is the earliest existing stone monument in the ward. 
@Other important
assets include images of Shio-Jizo(healer of eye diseases),Miwa-Jizo(healer
of pain from decayed teeth),Roku-Jizo housed in the main building
and from the days of Buddhist pilgrimage across the country.
 Though
Tokuzoji has undergone many disastres such as fires and earthquakes
especially in the fire in the third year of Kaei(1850),the main building
and all the assets and documents left to each successive head priest
were reduced to ashes-it has each time
been reconstructed or maintained by the efforts of prisets and parishioners,thus
remaining to be a guiding light for the local populace for more than
four centuries. @
Tokuzoji is within 5 minutes'walk
of Gotanda station. |
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@info@tokuzouji.or.jp