Kimii-dera Temple

Overview

Kimii-dera (紀三井寺) is a Buddhist temple in the city of Wakayama, in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. It was founded in 770, during the Nara period (710–794), in the first year of the Hōki era (宝亀). The temple is dedicated to Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara, known in Japanese as Jūichimen Kannon (十一面観音), a bodhisattva associated with compassion who is depicted with eleven heads. The main image is a hibutsu (秘仏), a sacred statue kept permanently hidden from public view.

Kimii-dera is the head temple of the Kusei Kannon sect of Japanese Buddhism. Its full name is Kimiiyama Gokoku-in Kongōhō-ji (紀三井山 金剛寶寺 護國院). The temple is the second stop on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a long-established circuit of thirty-three Kannon temples across western Japan. It also belongs to three national selections: the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, Japan's Top 100 Cherry Blossom Spots, and the Selected 100 Exquisite and Well-Conserved Waters of Japan.

The temple stands on the western slope of Mount Nakusa, which rises to 228.7 metres, in the southern part of the plain at the mouth of the Kinokawa River. The grounds sit roughly 50 metres above sea level and look out over Wakaura Bay.

History

Kimii-dera was founded in 770, the first year of the Hōki era, placing its establishment in the Nara period. That era saw the consolidation of Buddhism as a state-sponsored religion in Japan, with great temples built in the capital and provincials centres.

The temple originally belonged to the Yamashina branch of Shingon Buddhism, a school centred on esoteric practice. It remained within that lineage for centuries. In 1951 Kimii-dera became independent, and it now serves as the head temple of the Kusei Kannon sect.

The temple's water springs carry a dated association with the Tokugawa period. Sandstone tanks at the three springs are inscribed with the name of each water and the date 1650. They were built by order of Tokugawa Yorinobu, the daimyō of Wakayama Domain. In March 1985 the Ministry of the Environment selected the temple's water as one of Japan's "100 Famous Waters."

What Stands There Today

The temple grounds occupy the western slope of Mount Nakusa, about 50 metres above sea level, with a panoramic view of Wakaura Bay. Three springs rise within the grounds, and the temple takes its name from them. Each spring has a sandstone tank inscribed with its name and the date 1650.

The grounds are known for cherry blossom viewing and have been selected as one of Japan's 100 Best Cherry Blossom Viewing Spots. The sakura tree to the left of the main hall is the specimen Somei-Yoshino cherry tree designated by the Wakayama Regional Meteorological Observatory for determining the start of spring — its blooming is used as an official phenological marker for the region.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 紀三井寺. It is read きみいでら in kana, and romanised as Kimii-dera.

The name breaks into three elements:

• 紀 — read ki here. This kanji also stands for Kii (紀伊), the old province name covering the Wakayama area, and for the Kii Peninsula. In this temple name it anchors the site to its region.
• 三 — read mi here. The standard reading of this kanji is san, meaning "three." In compounds it often shifts to mi, as it does in this name.
• 井 — read i here. It means "well," the kind dug for water. Combined with 三, the pair 三井 (mii) means "three wells."
• 寺 — read dera here. It means "Buddhist temple." The kanji has the Sino-Japanese reading ji, which appears in hundreds of temple names; dera is the native Japanese reading used when the character stands at the end of a name.

So the written form is literally "Kii Three Wells Temple," and the reading Kimii-dera compresses 紀伊 (Kii) and 三井 (mii, "three wells") into a single word before the final 寺. The name records both the province and the three springs that supply the temple's water — the same springs whose sandstone tanks are inscribed with the year 1650.

Learners will meet 寺 constantly in Japanese place names and temple names, usually as -ji in formal compounds (as in the temple's full name, Kongōhō-ji) and as -dera in everyday names such as this one. The alternation between ji and dera for the same character is one of the small patterns worth memorising early.

Visiting and Context

Kimii-dera lies in the city of Wakayama, on the western slope of Mount Nakusa, above the southern edge of the Kinokawa River estuary plain. The grounds overlook Wakaura Bay. The temple is the second of the thirty-three stops on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a route that has drawn pilgrims across western Japan for centuries.

The site combines several kinds of recognition: a pilgrimage stop, a cherry blossom spot, and a listed water source. The spring water was selected by the Ministry of the Environment in March 1985 as one of Japan's "100 Famous Waters," and the cherry grounds were chosen among Japan's 100 Best Cherry Blossom Viewing Spots. The Somei-Yoshino tree beside the main hall serves the Wakayama Regional Meteorological Observatory as the specimen for declaring the start of spring in the area.

For a Japanese-language learner, the temple is a compact lesson in how Japanese names work. The same place carries a long formal name, Kimiiyama Gokoku-in Kongōhō-ji, and a short everyday name, Kimii-dera, and the short name itself encodes the region (Kii) and a physical feature (three wells) in four characters.