Bandō Thirty-three Kannon Pilgrimage

The Bandō pilgrimage (坂東三十三観音) is the eastern counterpart of the Saikoku route: thirty-three temples of Kannon spread across the Kantō plain, through Kanagawa, Tokyo, Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki and Chiba. It took shape in the Kamakura period, when the warrior government in the east wanted a sacred circuit of its own.

Temples 33
First temple Sugimotodera, Kamakura
Last temple Nagodera, Tateyama, Chiba
Length Around 1,300 kilometres

The route

Bandō begins in Kamakura, the old warrior capital, at Sugimotodera, said to be the oldest temple in the city, and continues through the Miura peninsula and into the mountains of the north. Its thirteenth temple is Sensōji in Asakusa, Tokyo's oldest and most visited temple, whose hidden Kannon is said to have been drawn from the Sumida River by fishermen in the seventh century. The route ends at the tip of the Bōsō peninsula, looking out to sea.

Bandō and Kamakura

Several temples on the route preserve Kamakura period images, and the pilgrimage reflects the culture of the eastern warrior class, which embraced Kannon devotion alongside Zen and the cult of Hachiman.

Collecting notes

  • Bandō stamp books and scrolls, sometimes combined with Saikoku and Chichibu as the Hundred Kannon, are collected as calligraphic records.
  • Sensōji's amulets, prints and Kannon figures form a large popular field.

In the collection

Browse Kannon figures and hanging scrolls. Our collector concierge can search Japan for Bandō material.

See also

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