Koa Kannon
| Koa Kannon | |
|---|---|
| ja: 興亜観音 | |
 |
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| Artist | Iwane Matsui |
| Year | 1940 |
| Medium | Clay |
| Subject | Kannon |
| Location | Mount Izu |
The Koa Kannon (興亜観音 Kōa Kannon, literally the “Raising Asia Kannon”) refers to a statue of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, located atop Mount Izu in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, as well as to the temple, formally a religious corporation called the Reihaizan Koa Kannon, which is dedicated to it. Koa Kannon is from the same lineage as the Hokke Shu Jin-Monryu, a breakaway sect of Nichiren Buddhism based in Sanjo in Niigata Prefecture, but it is not formally affiliated with them and is the only independent Buddhist temple in Japan with its own unique history and rites. The temple admits all worshipers regardless of their religion.
The temple is dedicated to all those who died in combat in the Second Sino-Japanese War but is especially known for interring the ashes of seven individuals executed as war criminals at a stone monument dedicated to the “seven warriors”.
The current head priest is Sister Myojo Itami who is the third daughter of the first head priest Master Ninrei Itami and is a registered nun of Hokke Shu Jin-Monryu. Yasuaki Itami, the adopted son of Ninrei’s eldest daughter, now hospitalized former head priest Myotoku Itami, assists Myojo and is in charge of the temple’s administrative affairs. He is a priest of the Soto school.
General Iwane Matsui who commanded the Shanghai Expeditionary Force at the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War built the Koa Kannon statue after retiring from the service in 1940 to honor the officers and men of both China and Japan who fell in battle in the name of consecrating equally both friend and enemy. The statue was made using clay from battlefields, including from the vicinity of Nanjing where Matsui served. On 24 February 1940 the consecration ceremony was performed in the presence of Tessui Oshima, a high-ranking Jodo Buddhist monk from Zojo-ji, and other distinguished figures. Then Matsui moved into a retreat he built nearby and he used to ascend the mountain every morning to give the kannon sutra.
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Wikipedia