Izusan Gongen　伊豆山権現

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Also called Hashiriyu Gongen 走湯権現. A deity associated with a hot spring which wells up on Izusan 伊豆山, a hill of 166m in Shizuoka prefecture close to the sea coast. A shrine was raised to the deity in the early 9c. In the late Heian period anE Esoteric Buddhist mikkyou 密教 temple called Hannya-in 般若院 was built on Izusan. The sculpture of Izusan Gongen that was the principal image of Hannya-in survives. He originally held a mace shaku 笏 and a halberd houbou 宝鉾. He wears a court hat, court robes, and kesa 袈裟 (Buddhist robes). This combination expresses particularly well the unity of Buddhism and Shinto shinbutsu shuugou 神仏習合 (see *honji suijaku 本地垂迹). In the Kamakura period, Izusan became a mountain used for ascetic practice shugendou 修験道 (see *En no Gyouja 役の行者), and was linked with Hakone 箱根 as a pilgrimage destination, receiving government patronage. Izusan remained well known as a shugendou sacred mountain until the early Meiji period, when the site was made Shinto and the Buddhist objects scattered. A Buddhist manifestation *honjibutsu 本地仏 of Izusan Gongen is the Thousand-armed Kannon *Senju Kannon 千手観音.

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