NIPPON Kichi - 日本吉

2007/6/19

観音山御神木 Kannon-yama-goshinboku The Sacred God Tree of Mt. Kannon

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The 400-year-old oak tree stands at the entrance of Kannonyama Park atop Mt. Kannon (80 m above sea level) in Samani Town in southern Hokkaido. It has been worshipped by the local people as the sacred “god” tree. Mt. Kannon had been called “Sopiranupuri,” meaning “a mountain with cliffs and waterfalls” by the Ainu people.

During the Meiji period (1868-1912), a priest of Tojuin Temple, which is one of the three temples constructed in Hokkaido by the Tokugawa Shogunate in the Edo period (1603-1868), placed 33 Kannon statues in this mountain by modeling after the Saigoku 33 Pilgrim Route; thereby the mountain was called Mt. Kannon as the years passed by.

The sacred god tree is 12 meters tall and 116 centimeters in diameter. It was designated as a protected tree of Hokkaido in 1973. Many holes and warts on the trunk and the bristling dead thin branches make the tree look like a hairy monster.

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Samani-cho, Samani-gun, Hokkaido 058-0000
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The Sacred God Tree of Mt. Kannon




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