Mizuma-dera

Quick facts

Address

638 Mizuma, Kaizuka, Osaka

Spiritual entities

Avalokiteśvara (Kannon · Gwaneum, 観音菩薩)

About this place

Mizuma-dera is in Kaizuka, Osaka. In 744, by the order of Emperor Shomu, the priest Gyoki founded it. When the forty-fifth sovereign, Emperor Shomu, fell ill at the age of forty-two and did not recover, a dream oracle came. When Gyoki reached this place, sixteen boys suddenly appeared and, without inviting him, led him into a valley. There stood a white-haired old man, holding out a buddha in his hands: an image of Sho Kannon in Jambu gold, one sun eight bu — about six centimetres — in height. The cascade where the Kannon appeared is called the Fall of the Descent. In later times the temple came to be revered by ordinary people as the Kannon who wards off misfortune.

Origin and history

In 744, by the order of Emperor Shomu, the priest Gyoki founded Mizuma-dera.

When the forty-fifth sovereign, Emperor Shomu, fell ill at the age of forty-two and did not recover, a dream oracle came. When Gyoki reached this place, sixteen boys suddenly appeared and, without inviting him, led him down into a valley. There stood a white-haired old man holding out a buddha in his hands — an image of Sho Kannon in Jambu gold, about six centimetres in height.

The cascade where the Kannon appeared is called the Fall of the Descent. In later times the temple came to be revered by ordinary people as the Kannon who wards off misfortune.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotProtection & Safety

  The Kannon who wards off misfortune

  In later times the temple came to be revered by ordinary people as the Kannon who wards off misfortune.

  documented history

• Origin

  An emperor’s illness and a dream

  Emperor Shomu fell ill at forty-two and did not recover; a dream oracle came, and in 744 Gyoki founded the temple by imperial order.

  folk tradition

• What people do here

  Sixteen boys and the Fall of the Descent

  Sixteen boys appeared and led Gyoki into a valley where a white-haired old man held out a six-centimetre Sho Kannon; the cascade where it appeared is called the Fall of the Descent.

  folk tradition

This temple begins with one sick man. The forty-fifth sovereign, Emperor Shomu, fell ill at forty-two and did not recover — and then, the temple transmits, a dream oracle came. In 744, on his order, the priest Gyoki founded this place.

The guides came with a number. When Gyoki reached the place, sixteen boys suddenly appeared and led him into a valley without inviting him. In the valley stood a white-haired old man, holding a buddha out in his hands: an image of Sho Kannon in Jambu gold, one sun eight bu, about six centimetres. A whole temple stands for an image six centimetres tall.

The cascade where the Kannon appeared has a name of its own, the Fall of the Descent. And the devotion travelled downward. A temple that began at an emperor’s sickbed came, the temple records, to be revered by ordinary people as the Kannon who wards off misfortune.

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Sources

1. 歴史 — Mizuma-dera (accessed 2026-08-15)