The origin of Kokawadera Temple

Japanese: 粉河寺縁起 - こかわでらえんぎ

A picture scroll depicting the miracles and miraculous powers surrounding the Thousand-Armed Kannon statue, the principal image of Kokawa-dera Temple. Volume 1. It is estimated to have been produced in the late 12th century. The first part of the scroll was lost in a fire, and the top and bottom of the scrolls are also badly damaged. The story itself was included as early as 1054 (Tenki 2) in the first half of the Kokawa-dera Daisotsu Toba Kenritsu Engi, which tells the story of the founding of the temple, in which a hunter living in Naka County, Kii Province, during the Hoki era (770-781), saw a place where light shone brightly in the mountains, thought it was strange, and wished to build a hermitage out of brushwood and create a Buddha statue. A young ascetic then visited the hunter, shut himself in the hermitage for seven days, created the Thousand-Armed Kannon statue, and disappeared.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

粉河寺の本尊千手観音造像にまつわる奇跡とその霊験譚を描いた絵巻。1巻。12世紀後半の制作と推定される。火災によって巻頭部分を失い，巻の上下もいたみがはげしい。この説話自体は，はやく1054年(天喜2)の《粉河寺大率都婆建立縁起》の前半に収載されており，それを参照すれば，前段は，宝亀年中(770‐781)紀伊国那賀郡に住む猟師が，山中に光明の輝く所のあるのを見て奇異に思い，柴の庵を建て仏像を造りたいと念じていると，童行者が訪れて，7日の間庵に閉じこもり千手観音像を造ってそのまま姿を消したという同寺草創の話。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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