Kinomoto Jizoin

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Investigado y escrito por Hinato

Kinomoto Jizoineye healingfrogsHokkoku KaidoNagahama

Photo: 663highland / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5) · original

Kinomoto Jizoin is a temple to the eyes. Its Jizo has been venerated for sight for centuries, and outside the hall stands a six-metre bronze copy of the hidden principal image, surrounded by hundreds of small frog statues — offered by worshippers because frogs in the local telling gave up one eye each so that people could keep theirs, and the temple pond is said to hold one-eyed frogs to this day.

The town around it, Kinomoto, was where the Hokkoku Kaido met the Hokkoku Wakiokan, so it grew as a post town and as the temple's gate town at the same time. The old street survives with a sake brewery, a soy sauce maker and a 200-year-old pharmacy still trading. In late August the temple's great fair fills the approach with about a hundred stalls.

Información esencial

Horario

Grounds open through the day | Great fair over four days in late August

Cerrado: Open year-round

Entrada

Free

Mejor temporada

Late August for the great fair | Year-round for the temple and the old highway

Duración de la visita

1–1.5 hours

Cómo llegar

Información de acceso

Kinomoto-cho Kinomoto, Nagahama City. About a short walk from Kinomoto Station on the JR Hokuriku Line; by car from Kinomoto Interchange. The grounds are free and open through the day. The great fair runs over four days in late August, with around 100 stalls along the Hokkoku Kaido and the temple approach and around 100,000 visitors across the period. Confirm the current year's dates locally.

Guía privilegiada

**Look for the frogs.** Hundreds of small statues around the standing Jizo, left by people praying for their sight, on the story that the frogs gave up an eye each. It is the detail that makes the temple rather than the buildings. **Late August for the fair.** Four days, about a hundred stalls down the old highway, and around a hundred thousand people through a small town. It is the region's biggest summer event and includes a fireworks night. **Walk the Hokkoku Kaido through the town.** A sake brewery, a soy sauce maker and a pharmacy that has been trading for 200 years, all still working, in about ten minutes of street. **The principal image is hidden.** The bronze figure outside is a copy at six metres; the original is not shown. This is normal for a hibutsu and worth knowing before you look for it. **Kinomoto is the gateway to the northern lake.** Yogo, Shizugatake and the Kohoku Buddhist statue villages are all within 20 minutes, and this is the natural base for a day among them.