4.Mochizuki Tenmansha Shrine

Encounters with Shinto and Buddhism
at splendid shrine and temple

　A torii gate on a hill looks out over rice paddies, and beside it, a Buddhist temple called a Fudo Myoo-do Hall. This wonderful sight is a vestige of the fusion of Shinto and Buddhism in ancient times. However, Buddhist images would normally have been removed from Shinto shrines in Usuki City following a government order separating Shintoism and Buddhism in 1868. This is a rare place where a Shinto object of worship and a Buddhist statue are still enshrined on the same grounds to this day. The enshrined deity, Michizane Sugawara-no-Michizane, was identified in the times of Shinto-Buddhism fusion to be the 11-faced Kannon Bodhisattva (the original Buddhist identity of the Shinto deity). However, the original Buddhist identity of the Shinto deity was sometimes considered Yakushi Nyorai (Buddha able to cure all ills) and sometimes Fudo Myoo (The Immovable), so we see today the state of the villagers’ beliefs in the Edo Period (1603-1868), which makes it a precious place.