In the early 12th century, there was a feudal lord named Kanenori Hirama
(his date of birth and death unknown) holding a fief in Aichi Prefecture.
As a vassal family of the Minamoto Clan, he participated the Nine-Year and Three-Year Battles broke out in northern Japan (see Taihoji for details) together with his father, and rendered distinguished services. After the winning battles, however, Yoshimitsu Minamoto (1045-1127), his boss and chief of the Minamoto clan, deprived him of the fief because of a false charge filed against him. In distress, he started on a roaming journey and settled finally at the marshland near estuary of the Tama River (a border between Kanagawa Prefecture and Tokyo) circa 1130, where he began earning a livelihood by fishing at Tokyo Bay. Back at the time, the area including today's Tokyo was covered with grasses or forests, and few people lived.
Legend narrates that in the sea near the house Hirama lived in, there was something that emitted light every night. While he was asleep one night, a great-looking priest appeared in his dream and identified himself as Priest Kukai (774-835), the founder of the Shingon Sect. The Priest told him, "When I was in China to study Buddhism, I carved my own statue and threw it into water offering a prayer to save suffering people. The radiating object off the beach is the statue of my own. Cast a net and pick it up. If you continue to embrace the statue, you will be protected from evils." Hirama was exactly 42 years old at the time, believed to be an evil year (yakudoshi) for men. He deferred to the Priest's revelation in the dream and went
into the sea with a net. As had been predicted, he found the statue and
caught it in the net. He brought it back home and worshiped it faithfully
night and day.
Shortly afterward, an itinerant priest of Kongobuji in Wakayama Prefecture, the mother temple of the entire Shingon Sect, was travelling around here and head a rumor of Hirama's encounter
with the statue. The priest, Sonken by name, visited Hirama's house and
watched the statue, which looked precisely like Priest Kukai. Moved by
Hirama's faith in Priest Kukai and the statue, he built a small temple
for Hirama so that Hirama might enshrine the statue. This small temple
is the origin of today's Heikenji. (Hirama can also be pronounced Heiken in Chinese characters and the namesake of Heikenji). Hirama's faith seem
to have brought him a miraculous virtue. The charges filed against him
earlier proved to be false. Hirama was acquitted and permitted to assume
the original position as the lord of a fief in Aichi. Upon returning to
Aichi, he donated half of his fortune to the Temple to express his deep
sense of gratitude. The tale spread fast and people began to believe that
the Temple has a magical power to prevent ill fortune. Gaining a reputation
for being able to ward off evils, it turned into a magnet for the faithful.
However, the district back then was a dry river-bed not suitable for people to live and remained so for a long time. It was only in 1603 that Ieyasu Tokugawa (1542-1616), the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, unified Japan and placed the military headquarters in Tokyo (then called Edo {eh-doh}), making it the de facto nation's capital. Thereafter, population of Tokyo began to increase gradually. Nevertheless, the Temple was not yet well known in the early Edo Period (1603-1868).
It was a member of the Tokugawa Shogunate family named Munetake Tayasu (1715-1771), to whom today's popularity of the Temple owes much. He was the second son of the Eighth Shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa (1684-1751) and established the Tayasu family. Hearing rumors that Heikenji, a.k.a. Kawasaki Daishi (Daishi is an honorific title for Priest Kukai) had miraculous virtues and was
responsive to prayers, he visited the Temple in 1753, and offered prayer
for her wife, who was about to reach the age 33, which was thought to be
the unlucky year for women, or Yakudoshi (to be mentioned later in this page). Exorcism and prayers for her appeared
to have been answered and her wife spent the year in comfort. Again in
1756, when Tayasu himself was 42 years old, Yakudoshi for men, he visited the Temple to exorcise
evil spirits from him. By virtue of the the
marvelous efficacy, his Yakudoshi year which might have otherwise been unlucky proved to be nice and happy.
In deference to the efficacy, he donated a stone monument, or Hokyo-into (see Kamakura Terminology), to the Temple. It still exists in the Temple's grounds. The story spread
fast among the Tokugawa family, and the Shogun thereafter began to visit
the Temple the year they attained the age of Yakudoshi.
Since the Temple was situated only 15 kilometers south of midtown Tokyo (22 kilometers to be exact as the road was winding), it was possible for enthusiasts to make a day's trip to the Temple. With growth of population (over 1 million in the early 18th century), visitors who want to win favor of the deity and want to prevent ill fortune increased so sharply that the 35th chief priest was able to collect enough alms from 100,000 devotees to build a magnificent main hall in 1835, the year of Priest Kukai's 1,000th anniversary of death. Townsend Harris (1804-1878), the first American consul who resided in Shimoda, Shizuoka
Prefecture (refer to Gyokusenji for details of Harris), visited the Temple on November 11, 1857 on his way up to Tokyo to meet with the Shogun for the negotiation of the US-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce. According to his Journals, it was Sunday, the Sabbath, and the Temple was just one mile down the
hotel he was staying at. After Sunday service (which was prohibited in
Japan), he strolled down to the Temple. Although his impressions on Japan
were by and large contemptuous and full of strange feeling, he was amazed
at and praised the structures, the 23 by 27 meters copper-roofed main hall
in particular.
Those days, the Temple as well as those in Kamakura were favorite places
for foreigners to visit. In August 1862, four Britons tried to visit the
Temple. On their way from Yokohama, they met with Daimyo (feudal lord) procession and were killed or seriously injured by samurai. Total strangers, they knew nothing about how to deal with the procession.
It was referred to as Namamugi Incident and developed into the war between British navy and Daimyo in Kagoshima
Prefecture. (See Sojiji). For them, the Temple must have seemed
to be of great attraction.
Given the fact that there was no transportation mode like today's, most
visitors in Tokyo had to walk the long way to visit the Temple. They usually
left home at 4:00 a.m. and needed six and a half hours one way, getting
back home late at night.
Entrepreneurs seem to exist at any time. Seeing the congestion around the Temple, an electric railroad was constructed in 1899 connecting present day's Kawasaki Station to Kawasaki Daishi Station, now called the Daishi Line of Keihin Kyuko Railways Co. It was the first electric trains ever operated in eastern Japan and the
origin of today's Keihin Kyuko Railways. It runs today from Tokyo down
to the tip of the Miura peninsula. Meanwhile, the first locomotive trains
began to run in 1872 between Shinbashi, Tokyo and Sakuragi-cho, Yokohama.
In between was Kawasaki.
Before World War II, Tokyo, Kawasaki and
Yokohama areas (called Keihin district for short taking the kanji characters of kyo and hama) was the most heavily industrialized zone in Japan, and became the main
arsenal of Japanese army. Naturally, the areas turned target of air raids
by the Allied Forces. On April 15, 1945, in particular, B29 air bombers
almost flattened Kawasaki, and the Temple was almost totally destroyed
including the library, wherein precious treasures and ancient documents
had been kept. (B29 is as well known to the elderly Japanese as B747 is.)
This is a major reason the Temple's historical backgrounds are not necessarily
clear.
Conveniently located in this densely populated region between Tokyo and Yokohama, the Temple draws each year nearly 3 million worshipers during the first three days of New Year, always ranking in the third place next to Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo and Shinshoji near the Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture.
He is known as the founder of the Shingon Sect, or the Esoteric Buddhism (also referred to as Tantric Buddhism) in Japan. Born to a local aristocracy's family in Kagawa Prefecture and highly gifted from childhood, he was sent to Kyoto for study at age 14, and entered a college at age 18 majoring in Chinese philosophy such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. However, he dropped out before long and focused his study on Buddhism. What he did soon afterward was to practice ascetic self-discipline in the mountains of Tokushima and Kochi Prefectures. Later in Nara, he came across the Mahavairocana (The Great Sun) sutra, which led him into the Esoteric Buddhism. In 804 at age 31, he was enrolled as a member of the Japanese envoy to China under the Tang dynasty, the first of the official diplomatic mission. Arriving at Ch'ang-an, then the capital of China, by way of Fuchien Province, he became a student of Priest Hui-Kuo (746-805) (Keika in Japanese) at Ch'ing-lung temple, which was thought to be the mecca of the Chen-yen (Shingon) sect of Esoteric Buddhism in China.
A fluent speaker of Chinese language and master of Sanskrit, he was welcomed by Priest Hui-Kuo. So capable as he was, Priest Hui-Kuo had ordained him to the master of the Esoteric Buddhism just before Priest Hui-kuo passed away, conducting an initiation ceremony called Abhisecarna in Skt. In 806, he came back to Japan as a specialist of the Esoteric Buddhism and brought in a great deal of Buddhism-related artifacts made in China including graphic arts and ritual implements. The same year, he joined Jingoji in Kyoto, where he was engaged in propagating the Esoteric Buddhism. It was so influential and appealing to those who had been accustomed to perfunctory Buddhism that he won patronage of the Imperial Family and court nobles. Backed by their support, Priest Kukai founded Kongobuji in 819, the head temple of the entire Shingon Sect, at Mt. Koya in Wakayama Prefecture with the aid of Emperor Saga (786-842). In 823, the same emperor granted him Toji (its official name is Kyo-o-gokoku-ji) located near Kyoto Station as a seminary for the Esoteric Buddhism. It was the Japanese equivalent of Ch'ing-lung temple in Ch'ang-an. In commemoration of his dedicated performances, the Buddhist honorable title Kobo Daishi was conferred on him. Daishi is literally a great master, an honorific
title given by the Imperial Court to prelate-like
priests with high virtue.
Besides his role as a religious leader, Priest
Kukai was also a great calligrapher, a poet
and an artist. The fifty one hiragana {he-rah-gah-nah}, or the Japanese phonetic
symbols we Japanese widely use today, were
invented by him simplifying Chinese characters.
The first thing today's school children have
to learn are those hiragana. Before hiragana was invented, all Japanese wordage were
written or expressed in complicated Chinese
characters.
There are two pieces of popular saying related
to his skilled penmanship. The first is "Priest
Kobo chooses no pen", which corresponds
to "A bad workman quarrels with his
tools". The other is "Even Priest
Kobo misspells", which is equivalent
to "Homer sometimes nods". Incidentally,
Emperor Saga was as good a calligrapher as
Priest Kukai.
Another achievement made by Priest Kukai was the Shikoku Eighty-eight Temples Pilgrimage. Even today, the pilgrimage is quite popular and honored by tens of thousands of worshipers every year. It starts at a temple in Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku Island, and make the the rounds of the total eighty-eight holy temples clockwise to Kochi, Ehime and Kagawa Prefectures. To complete the 1,400-kilometer-circuit on foot requires usually two months. In Shikoku Island, you can spot those white-clad pilgrims with straw hat and wooden staff. Though many are making the round by air-conditioned buses or cars in a week or so, real pilgrims finish the circuit totally on foot chanting the Heart Sutra at each temple. They regard the wooden staff as Kobo Daishi himself and believe they are always with
the Daishi.
His bronze statue on the pilgrim with a wooden staff and bamboo hat is
standing in the Temple's courtyard.
Teachings of Esoteric Mahayana Buddhism originate in India and flourished from the 6th to the 10th centuries. In Japan it was first introduced by Priest Kukai via China as noted above, and then by Priest Saicho (767-822), the founder of the Tendai Sect and Enryakuji at Mt. Hiei, Shiga Prefecture.
It shares with other sect the dedication
to achieving enlightenment, but takes the
stand that its fundamental scriptures are
the Dainichi-kyo (Mahavairocana sutra in Skt.) and the Kongocho-kyo (Vajrasekhara sutra in Skt.). They are expounded
by the cosmic Buddha Dainichi-Nyorai (Mahavairocana in Skt.), or the Ultimate Reality. Sakyamuni is interpreted as one of many manifestations of the Buddha Mahavairocana. A sedentary statue of Dainichi-Nyoraiat e-Museum.
In the case of Shingon Sect, the formula that are repetitively declaimed are Nam-daishi-henjo-kongo, similar to Nam-amy-dah-boo'ts for the Jodo Sect and Nam-myo-ho-ren-ghe'kyo for the Nichiren Sect. Nam means adoration to something. Daishi is Priest Kukai himself and Henjo-kongo stands for Dainichi-Nyorai.
The Sect puts more emphasis on elaborate
and secret ritual practices such as mantras
and mudras rather than theoretical doctrines.
This purificatory and exorcistic rites are
so elaborate and complicated that no other
sect Buddhists can follow. In this context,
the Sect has closer affinity with Hinduism
and Lamaism. Best known among the services
would be a sacred fire-ritual for invocation,
which is called Gomaor Homa in Skt., meaning a holy fire for
invocation to exorcise evil spirits. To be
specific, it is the rite of burning cedar
sticks on the altar while chanting sutras
and using many Buddhist implements. Fire
is believed to purify or ward off the evil
spirits. Not in the written scriptures at
all, the method of rituals are handed down
from masters to disciples by word of mouth.
As a result, the Sect is said to be secret
or esoteric.
Meditation is usually made in front of the altars, on which two sacred mandala (which represents the universe pictorially with geometric designs of Buddha deities pantheon) are placed: One is the Diamond World (Vajra-dhatu in Skt. Kongo-kai in Japanese) and Womb World (Garbha-dhatu
in Skt. Taizo-kai in Jpns.) The Diamond World mandala represents the realm of transcendent and the Womb World the compassionate aspects of the Buddha. Mandala also serve as the object of worship as they represent the deities pantheon and the spiritual universe. Mandala can be seen at Culture Net site.
Shingon Sect temples usually enshrine statues of Dainichi Nyorai and or Myo-o (Vidyaraja in Skt.) group. Unlike other
Nyorai statues, Dainichi-Nyorai is represented in a princely costume and
accessories similar to those worn by Bodhisattvas.
All Myo-o are its attendants and are believed to admonish,
by the command of Dainichi Nyorai, those who are reluctant to accept its teachings.
Myo-o are warlike deities representing the luminescent
wisdom of the Buddha, typified by Fudo-Myo-o (Acalanatha in Skt.). In stark contrast
to Nyorai and Bosatsu statues, all the Myo-o statues take on a ferocious appearance with
pugnacious aspect, with a third eye in the
middle of their forehead, designed to frighten
away evil spirits and threaten those who
do not easily accept teachings. Among Myo-o, most often we encounter are Go-dai-Myo-o, or the Five Great-Wisdom Kings. Shinshoji situated near the Narita International Airport is also a full-fledged Shingon sect temple.
A Fudo-Myo-o statue at NNM.
In the early 9th century, Priest Saicho also visited China and introduced to Japan the Tendai (Tian-tai in Chinese) sect, another Esoteric Buddhism. In Japanese, the Esoteric Buddhism is termed Mikkyo and to distinguish the Shingon Sect and the Tendai Sect Mikkyo, we call the former Toh-mitsu (Mikkyo of Toji) and the latter Tai-mitsu (Mikkyo of Tian-tai).
Yakushi Hall The two-story building looks like an Indian temple and has a total space of 723 square meters. On top of the three towers, large one in the center, are equipped with Horin, or Dharma-cakra in Skt., a Buddhist implement which is believed to drive
away evil spirits. Brand new Yakushi Nyorai (Bhaisajyaguru) and its attendants Juni (Twelve)Shinsho statues were enshrined at the hall only recently in 2008 in commemoration
of the Temple's 880th anniversary.
A sedentary statue of Yakushi Nyoraiat e-Museum and six of Juni Shinsho at MFA..
It used to be a hall for Yakuyoke, or warding off evils. Yakuyoke against car-accidents are most popular.
Yaku denotes every sort of misfortune, be it man-made calamity or natural disaster. The Japanese still harbor the belief that those misfortunes befall them by the power of evil spirits or divine punishments, and they have to exorcise those evil spirits in order to drive them out. Esoteric Buddhism as represented by the Shingon Sect seems to fit for those who want to be free from ill fortunes rather
than those who seek happiness, since the Sect supplicate the gods with
greatest fervency. Japanese exorcism reminds me of the discovery of the
Egyptian King Tut's mummy as a case in point. After it was unearthed in
1922 by Howard Carter (1874-1939), a series of misfortunes befell those who were involved in digging the King's tomb including Lord Carnarvan (1866-1923). If it had occurred in Japan, religious Japanese might have
believed the ill fortunes were brought by the evil spirits of the King
Tut and had to be exorcised immediately.
Besides, the Japanese like divination, most
of which are based on the ancient Chinese
philosophy. According to the principle, there
are the dual forces in this world: The positive
and negative, the active and passive, the
male and female, etc. In addition, there
are five natural elements: Fire, wood, earth,
metal and water. Divination is created by
the combination of the dual forces with the
five natural elements just like astrology,
and such divination is called Onmyo in Japanese.
A typical divination based on this thought
would be rokuyo, whereby each day of calendar is allocated
one of the following six specific names telling
what or when we should or should not do something:
Taian: A luck day, Shakku: A bad day except for twelve noon. Sensho: A lucky day in the morning but unlucky in the afternoon. Tomobiki : A trail day for better or for worse. Senbu: Good in the afternoon but unlucky in the morning. Butsumetsu: The most unlucky day in all respects meaning Buddha's death.
Those fortunes are applied in continuous six-day cycles (not always in
the order above), and appears on most of Japanese calendar. The older the
people, the more likely they honor the designations to get away from yaku. Scientifically speaking, those soothsaying
are groundless and the trends are at work
that calendar makers do not print those rokuyo simply because they are superstitious. Nevertheless,
many still observe them. To name a few, crematories
and funeral homes are all closed on the Butsumetsu day. Wedding-ceremony halls charge extra fee on weekend taian days due to strong demand. Even in the modern corporate society, the custom
has extensively been honored. There are ten electric power companies in
Japan and they have to report to the Ministry of Economy and Industry whenever
they change the electricity rates. Oddly enough, all the reports by them
have always been made on the taian days. It was only September 2000 that one of them, Tokyo Electric Power
Co., finally changed the time-honored custom and announced the rate change
on one of butsumetsu days. The Asahi Shinbun, the most influential daily in Japan with a circulation of 8 million,
played up the event in its business page.
In ancient days, major yaku were such calamities as listed on the marine
insurance policy like war, earthquake, tempest,
inundation, pestilence, a famine, etc. Yaku changes with time, however, and today's
top yaku would be traffic accidents. Every year, nearly one million people are
injured in traffic accidents, and of those, 5,000 people were killed (counting
only those who died within 24 hours after accidents). Almost all car owners
visit temples or shrines to have priests exorcise the evil spirit and pray
for the drivers to be protected from accidents in one way or another. The
Temple is among the most popular in this respect, so popular that this
hall functions as a prayer hall for the safe traffic. The hall was first
constructed in 1961 and then expanded to the present building in 1970 to
catch up growing demand. The exorcism ritual coupled with Goma ceremony takes place every thirty minutes from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
year-round. Applicants can apply for it by paying 5,000 yen a car, usually
good for one year. After the ritual, they receive a couple of exorcised
amulets and hang one in front of the driver's seat or stick it near the
license plate. On the amulets, a mark of katsuma or Karman in Skt. is printed, which is one of the ritual implements used
by Esoteric Buddhists to win karmic merit and believed to have a magical
power to drive away calamities. When I was here one day to take pictures,
a young driver who apparently finished the exorcism rite sped out of the
parking lot with bustling noise. Muffler of his car was apparently altered.
He may have felt relieved and trust the god would keep him from all sorts
of accidents. Does the god really protect such a hot-rodder and give better
divine favors to him than to those who do not visit temples or shrines
but drive carefully?
Yakudoshi or yaku year, and yaku age are also of great concern for Japanese. According to the Onmyo school, the age 25 and 42 for men and 19 and 33 for women are thought
to be critical years. (Note: A person's age in this case is counted in
a traditional way according to the calendar year starting from the year
of birth as age 1. A baby who was born on December 31, therefore, would
be age 2 the next day.) Those whose age reach yakudoshi are usually at a crossroad in life and are deemed vulnerable for evil
influences. Here again, Yakudoshi men and women visit temples or shrines to
get divine favors. The Yakudoshi concept is not necessarily superstitious.
Statistically, those ages are climacteric
ones and those who reaches yakudoshi are most likely to experience one misfortune
or another. In my personal case, for example,
it was right in this Yakudoshi year that the Yom Kippur War broke out and changed my business career.
Careful enthusiasts want to be exorcised a year earlier and a year after
in addition toYakudoshi year, calling them mae {mah-eh} (pre) yaku and ato {ah-toh} (post) yaku.
The 210th and 220th days counting from the first day of spring on lunar
calendar, which usually fall on September 1 and 11 are also thought to
be bad days for farmers because typhoons are likely to hit Japan's archipelago
on those days and cause heavy damages to the rice plants. Rice is the staple
food for Japanese like wheat is to Westerners and the plants bloom in early
September. According to Japan Meteorological Agency, however, typhoons that gave dire havocs in the past hit Japan during September
25 to 27.
The Temple has long been reputed not only
for its Yakuyoke exorcism but also for its ability to fulfill the wishes of worshipers,
and a magnet for pious enthusiasts. They apply the Temple for exorcism
and prayers for a wide array of wishes, which include: Driving out evil
spirits, well-being of one's family, business prosperity, recovery from
sickness, success in entrance exams, good marriages, pregnancy, getting
a good job, safe overseas travels, and so on. Exorcism rituals and prayers
for those applicants are performed 7 times on weekdays and 8 times on weekends
with a cost of ranging from 3,000 to 30,000 yen depending upon the time
needed for such rituals. When I visited the Temple at 1:10 p.m. on a Saturday,
the electric signboard was telling that the applicants had to wait until
14:30 for the next session.
For those who cannot afford the expensive rituals, the Temple provide them with numerous trinket-like talismans. Again, there is an array of amulets of all kinds, to prevent sickness, ensure family safety, foster business prosperity, to prevent automobile accident, and good luck charms like rabbit feet in the West. The costs range from 300 yen to 2,000 yen.
TempleStructures
The Temple is among the three largest New Shingon sect temples in the Kanto region (Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures) . The other two are: Shinshoji in Narita and Yakuo-in at Mt. Takao, Tokyo. Worthy of the name, it has many gorgeous structures
and draws a great number of visitors.
Henjo-mon Gate
In memory of the 850th anniversary of the Temple's founding, the Gate was
constructed in 1977. With double-decked, half hipped roof, it houses shiten-no statues, or four statues of deva kings, on both sides. As to details on
Shiten-no, see Buddhism. They are cast copying those that are enshrined
at Toji in Kyoto, the mecca of the Esoteric
Buddhism. Enshrined in the upper story are
a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, or Bhaisajyaguru vaiduryaprabha in Skt.,
and Juni-Shinsho, or twelve guardian deities of Yakushi Nyorai.
Main Hall
Built of reinforced concrete in 1964, it employed an architectural style
prevailed in the Heian Period (794-1185). It measures 42 by 32 meters and
25 meters high. Before the War, it was a masterpiece of wooden building.
Unfortunately, it was totally destroyed by air raids in April 1945. The
original main object of worship, or the statue of Priest Kukai, had been
evacuated to a temple in Yokohama and survived, while the one temporary
enshrined at the time of the raid was ruined.
Fudo-do Hall As the name indicates, the hall enshrines
a statue of Fudo Myo-o, or Acalanatha in Skt. Literally it is the Immovable and was invited from
Shinshoji in Narita as its main object of worship. The hall was first erected
in 1890 and was rebuilt in 1964 together with the Main Hall.
Octagonal Five-story Pagoda
Pagodas are often seen at Shingon Sect temples and here "Octagonal" represents the eight training methods Buddhists have to practice. Normally, Japanese pagodas are square structures. Octagonal ones are rare in Japan and often seen in China or Korea. Inside the colorful structure is a statue of Dainichi Nyorai, or Mahavairocana in Skt., standing on a dais that is made of eight leaves
of lotus flower. Constructed in 1984.
Annual Observances
The Temple holds major observances honored
by other leading temples. Unique rituals
held by the Temple are as follows:
21st each month: The day consecrated to Priest Kukai, who
is said to have passed away on March 21.
Mid May: Birthday Ceremony for Priest Kukai. Priest Kukai was born on June 15,
774 and the Temple holds ceremony for the observance of his birthday every
year. Since mid June is in rainy season, the ceremony takes lace in mid
May advancing by a month.
May 25: Takigi noh: Noh is played in the evening at the courtyard
of the Temple under the burning firewood.
Mid July: Wind bells bazaar. It is a summer feature of the Temple. In the courtyard,
about 900 types, 32,000 wind-chimes, usually made of glass, are put on
show and for sale. In July 2009, the Temple was crowded with 300,000 visitors
for the four-day period. It is called Japan's largest wind-bell bazaar.
First Sunday of October: Chasen kuyo {chah-sen koo-yoh}, or a memorial service for bamboo whisks.
For tea ceremony, a stirrer is an important
tool to make tea and it is deftly made with
bamboos. To show appreciation for this symbolic
tool used at the ceremony, the Temple holds
memorial service on this day at the tea rooms
in the Temple's ground.
Note
Referring to the Shingon Sect there are two sub-sects; traditional and new ones. The new Shingon Sect was founded by Priest Kakuban (1095-1143). Shinshoji in Chiba Prefecture, Yakuo-in in Tokyo as well as the Temple belong to Chizan school of the New Shingon Sect.
Legend narrates that in the sea near the house Hirama lived in, there was something that emitted light every night. While he was asleep one night, a great-looking priest appeared in his dream and identified himself as Priest Kukai (774-835), the founder of the Shingon Sect. The Priest told him, "When I was in China to study Buddhism, I carved my own statue and threw it into water offering a prayer to save suffering people. The radiating object off the beach is the statue of my own. Cast a net and pick it up. If you continue to embrace the statue, you will be protected from evils." Hirama was exactly 42 years old at the time, believed to be an evil year (yakudoshi) for men. He deferred to the Priest's revelation in the dream and went
into the sea with a net. As had been predicted, he found the statue and
caught it in the net. He brought it back home and worshiped it faithfully
night and day. 
He is known as the founder of the Shingon Sect, or the Esoteric Buddhism (also referred to as Tantric Buddhism) in Japan. Born to a local aristocracy's family in Kagawa Prefecture and highly gifted from childhood, he was sent to Kyoto for study at age 14, and entered a college at age 18 majoring in Chinese philosophy such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. However, he dropped out before long and focused his study on Buddhism. What he did soon afterward was to practice ascetic self-discipline in the mountains of Tokushima and Kochi Prefectures. Later in Nara, he came across the Mahavairocana (The Great Sun) sutra, which led him into the Esoteric Buddhism. In 804 at age 31, he was enrolled as a member of the Japanese envoy to China under the Tang dynasty, the first of the official diplomatic mission. Arriving at Ch'ang-an, then the capital of China, by way of Fuchien Province, he became a student of Priest 
Yaku denotes every sort of misfortune, be it man-made calamity or natural disaster. The Japanese still harbor the belief that those misfortunes befall them by the power of evil spirits or divine punishments, and they have to exorcise those evil spirits in order to drive them out. Esoteric Buddhism as represented by the Shingon Sect seems to fit for those who want to be free from ill fortunes rather
than those who seek happiness, since the Sect supplicate the gods with
greatest fervency. Japanese exorcism reminds me of the discovery of the
Egyptian King Tut's mummy as a case in point. After it was unearthed in
1922 by 
The Temple has long been reputed not only
for its Yakuyoke exorcism but also for its ability to fulfill the wishes of worshipers,
and a magnet for pious enthusiasts. They apply the Temple for exorcism
and prayers for a wide array of wishes, which include: Driving out evil
spirits, well-being of one's family, business prosperity, recovery from
sickness, success in entrance exams, good marriages, pregnancy, getting
a good job, safe overseas travels, and so on. Exorcism rituals and prayers
for those applicants are performed 7 times on weekdays and 8 times on weekends
with a cost of ranging from 3,000 to 30,000 yen depending upon the time
needed for such rituals. When I visited the Temple at 1:10 p.m. on a Saturday,
the electric signboard was telling that the applicants had to wait until
14:30 for the next session. 