Ansho-ji Temple (Main Hall, Kannon Hall)

In the early Edo period (1603-1868), Seiben, the 28th abbot of the temple, whose teachings were followed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, appealed to him to help arrest the temple’s state of decline. In 1613, the original lands bequeathed to the temple by the 9th century empress, Fujiwara-no-Nobuko, which included mountains and forests, was returned to the temple, reversing its fortunes. The Buddhist statues, treasures, and so on that remained at the site of the old upper temple (kamidera) were relocated to the restored temple grounds. At the same time, the main buildings such as the Kannon Hall were erected, forming the current compound. The existing Kannon Hall was constructed in 1817.
The main image, a statue of the eleven-faced Kannon, is older than the temple itself. Few details are known about its history, but there are large statues like this from the Nara period (710-794) are rare, and so it has been designated as an Important Cultural Property.
The main image is flanked by statues of the Four Heavenly Kings: Komoku-ten, Guardian of the West (Heian period, 10th century); Zocho-ten, Guardian of the South (Edo period, 1848); Jikoku-ten, Guardian of the East (Heian period, 10th century), and Tamon-ten, Guardian of the North (Heian period, 10th century).
The 1702 Sanshu Meiseki-shi (Guide to Famous Historic Sites in Yamashiro Province) describes the temple as “An eleven-faced Kannon statue faces south in the hall […] the Five Tathagatas rest in the same hall.” This suggests that the Five Tathagatas (National Treasures, donated to the Kyoto National Museum) housed in the tahoto pagoda erected in 1757 (lost to fire in 1906) as the main images were once worshipped in the hall that existed here before the rebuilding.
The Rear Hall houses a statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who contributed so much to the temple’s restoration.
There is a Japanese Buddhist hymn that goes “Ansho-ji will grant a desire as trifling as a poppy seed; it will come save you in the reign of the Great Compassion.”
Kyoto City