Genkakuji Buddhist temple in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, is known for an image of the Konjak King Enma.

Genkakuji was established in 1624 and was worshipped by the second and third Tokugawa Shoguns.  The image of the Konjak King Enma in wood, 100 cm tall, which is enshrined in a hall as shown in the first and second photos, is thought to be created in the Kamakura period (in the 13th century).  

*Konjak means Yam Cake.

*King Enma means the King of the Hell.

The image is believed to be beneficial for healing eye diseases and those who have eye problem come here to pray for getting rid of it.  The reason for this is that, in the 18th century, an old woman suffering from an eye disease prayed to the image, thereupon the image replaced its healthy eye with her wrong one.  As a token of gratitude, she started to offer a piece of konjak, her favorite food stuff, to the image every day.  In fact, one eye of the image is yellow and cloudy.  In this connection, the third photo shows the bell of this temple manufactured in 1690.  The bell was once handed over to a temple in Saipan Island in 1937, when the island was Japan’s territory.  It was missing after the Second Worls War though, an American woman fortunately discovered it in Texas, U.S.A, and she returned it to the original owner, Genkakuji temple.

Jason Hardy,

http://tour-guide-japan.jp/