Eshima Sugiyama Shrine

Our company dedicates the Benzaiten of Eshima Shrine in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and also enshrines Kazuichi Sugiyama, who deeply believed in the Benzaiten. Kazuichi Sugiyama (Keicho 15< 1610> ~ Genroku 7 <1694>) was born into a samurai family in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, and became blind at a young age and aspired to acupuncture in order to establish himself. While he was initiated into and trained under Takuichi Yamase in Edo, he made a pilgrimage for seven days and seven nights at the Iwaya of Ejima Benzaiten. When I went outside on the day after the karma, I stumbled over a large stone, but there was something stuck in my hand, and when I searched for it, I found a pine needle in a dead leaf wrapped like a tube. "No matter how thin the needle is, if you put it in a tube and use it, even I, a blind person, can easily hit it." Thus, tube acupuncture, which is now the mainstream of acupuncture, was born. The stone that stumbled is enshrined as a "Fukuishi" in the precincts of the Eshima Shrine at the head office. After this, he entered the study of acupuncture in Kyoto under Toyoaki Irie in order to learn more about acupuncture. When he opened a treatment center in Edo, word spread quickly. At the same time, he produced many disciples and promoted the establishment of the world's first educational place and profession for the blind. In January 1670, at the age of 61, Kazuichi received the rank of examiner. Due to his fame, he began to serve as a physician to the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. On May 9, 1692, he was appointed as the general inspector of the school. When Kazuichi was eighty-three years old, he was asked if there was anything he wanted because of his treatment of the incurable illness of Prince Tsunayoshi, and he replied, "The only thing I want, my eyes," and Enoshima Benzaiten, who had been given the land of the Sojo mansion at the beginning of this Honjo and had never missed a visit to the moon even when Kazuichi was old, was invited to the premises. In the following year, a magnificent shrine was built, and it became a famous place in Edo called Honjo Ichitsume Bentensha, and attracted many worshippers. Died on May 18, 1694, at the age of 84. In the fourth year of the Meiji era, the Todoza organization was abolished and the Sojo mansion was confiscated, but the company was left because Prince Tsunayoshi treated it as an old ruin, and the company name was changed to Eshima Shrine. In April of the 23rd year of the Meiji era, the Sugiyama Kazuichi Shrine was also revived, and the Sugiyama Shrine was established in the precincts, and both shrines were burned down due to the earthquake and war damage, but after the war, it was enshrined in Showa 27 and became the Shimaejima Sugiyama Shrine.