About This Video
Chomeji Temple was erected around the 4th century near the beautiful lake Biwako, Japan’s largest natural lake. It centers around the life story of Takenouchi no Sukune, a famous ancient politician who, according to the legend, lived for the next 300 years after carving a passage into a large willow tree leading to the temple ground.
Several centuries later, the Prince Shotoku found Sukune’s carved passage and inscriptions and started to carve the tree into a Kannon statue on the advice of an old hermit living nearby, who was rumored to be Sukune himself. Once done, Shotoku, on the instruction of the hermit, enshrined the Kannon statue in a small temple and named it Chomeji or the Temple of Long Life.
