英語訳
**【Right Page】**
This mountain originally had two old pine trees. At that time, wood pigeons would come daily to play upon the branches of these pines, and taking this as a sacred omen, a small provisional shrine to the Great Deity Hachiman was established, with the pine trees designated as sacred trees (shinboku).
[Interlinear note: According to Nankōtei, this land was formerly part of the village of Waseda and was called "Nakashima." A wealthy commoner named Aoyagi-tsu Rokubei lived here; he was descended from a samurai who had served the Hōjō clan, and this forested mountain had been passed down in his family.]
This land had long been called "Amidasan" (Mount Amida) from ancient times, though no one knew the reason for this name. In the summer of the eighteenth year of Kan'ei (1641, the year of the Metal Ox), at Hōsen-ji Temple in Nakano, among the disciples of Dharma-seal Priest Shūyō, there was a monk called Ishōin Ryōshō. He was a native of Suō Province and a parishioner of the Yamaguchi Hachiman Shrine.
[Interlinear note: As a child he had served a samurai of the Mōri clan named Enomoto, but after Enomoto's death, at the age of nineteen he renounced the world, ascended Mount Kōya, and became a disciple of Dharma-seal Priest Shunzan of Hōshōin. After completing twelve years of religious practice, from the age of thirty-one he undertook the aspiration to travel and train throughout the provinces, and during that time he is said to have manifested various wondrous and miraculous deeds.]
Therefore, this monk was invited to serve as the shrine monk (shaso). Accordingly, in the autumn of that same year, on the third day of the eighth month, when they were cutting into the hillside to build a hermitage, they discovered a sacred cave (reikutsu). Inside the cave, upon a rock, stood a single gilt-bronze image of Amida Buddha.
[Interlinear note: Its height was approximately three sun (about 9 cm).]
As Amida is the original Buddhist manifestation (honji) of the Hachiman deity, and moreover corresponded with the name of the mountain, everyone found this most wondrous.
[Interlinear note: The name "Ana Hachiman" (Cave Hachiman) originated here. The site of the former cave still remains to this day beside the slope.]
Furthermore, on that very day, the heir of the Shogunal house
[Interlinear note: Lord Kenyū (Tokugawa Ietsuna)]
was born, and so the people came to recognize the divine power of the shrine all the more.
[Interlinear note: The Edo Meisho Ki records that this occurred on the ninth day of the eighth month of the same year.]
**【Left Page】**
[Interlinear note: A rope boundary of one chō square was laid around the shrine precincts, the land was cleared, the main shrine was relocated to the base of the sacred pine trees, and an eightfold fence was erected around it. At that time, the lord of Kaga Province donated several hundred laborers to consolidate and firm up the ground. Thus the work was completed without delay, and on the fourteenth day of the same month, the ceremony of the enshrinement transfer (senkū) was conducted. Matsudaira Shingozaemon-no-jō, accompanied by his followers, erected a curtain near the archery hill (Matoyama) and set up a formal small target. As the divine archery ceremony was to be performed in the traditional manner, it is said that a twelve-year-old child, the son of a certain person named Koike, performed the duty, and so forth.]
After that, during the Genroku era, the shrine buildings were constructed as they now stand, and the full complement of structures was completed.
[Interlinear note: According to the Nankōtei Sawa, Lord Kenyū held particular reverence for this shrine, and after the fulfillment of his long-cherished vow, had the shrine buildings constructed. The rear gate was donated by Naitō Buzen-no-kami, the Fugen-dō Hall by Matsudaira Sakon-shōgen, and the purification water fence by Masuyama Hyōbu-no-shōyū, among others. Also, various texts such as the Kōfu Jinja Ryakki and the Wakan Sansai Zue record that Lady Keishōin had the shrine restored during the Genroku era.]
**Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine** [Interlinear note: Located to the front-left of the main shrine.]
**Tōshō Daigongen** [Interlinear note: Enshrined alongside in the same location. Each year on the seventeenth day of the fourth month, many people come to pay their respects.]
**Himuro Myōjin Shrine** [Interlinear note: Facing the main shrine. A plaque inscribed with the two characters "Seitoku" (Flourishing Virtue) is displayed. The enshrined deity is Ōnamuchi-no-Mikoto. On the twenty-second day of the twelfth month of Genroku 2 (1689), Makimura-uji Naoyoshi fell ill with smallpox at the age of sixteen. On the second day of the first month of the following year (Genroku 3), a resident of Kanazawa named Watanabe-uji Koreyoshi received a divine dream in response, and enshrined this deity. Naoyoshi prayed to this deity and recovered. It is said to have been first enshrined here around the seventh year of Genroku (1694).]
**Hikari-matsu (Radiant Pine)** [Interlinear note: Located along a branch path on the slope between the administrative temple (bettō-ji) and the main shrine. The original pine tree is said to have withered during the Enkyō era (1744–1748), and what stands now is a young tree planted in later times to replace it. According to Nankōtei, this land was formerly a forested mountain thick with pine trees, and among them was one pine that would, from time to time, emit an auspicious light on dark nights. For this reason, the tree was called "Hikari-matsu" (Radiant Pine). Furthermore, it is also said that around the time of the initial enshrinement of Hachiman at this shrine in the thirteenth year of Kan'ei (1636), wood pigeons came to play upon the branches of this tree.]
**Hōjō-ike (Life-Releasing Pond)** [Interlinear note: Located at the base of the stone steps. A clear spring trickles down from the hillside. This is indeed a wondrous thing that corresponds well with the name "Iwashimizu" (Spring Water from the Rocks).]
**Shutsugen-sho (Place of Manifestation)** [Interlinear note: Located partway up the slope, along a sheer cliff face. It is the former site of the ancient sacred cave (reikutsu). Until fairly recently, there stood here a hall called the "Shutsugen-dō," which housed an image of Amida Nyorai of the "lower-grade, higher-birth" (gebon-jōshō) category among the Nine Grades of the Buddha, but it can no longer be seen today.]