Kannon-in built in the early Edo period and its history is closely related to that of the Ikeda clan. Ikeda Tadakatsu, daimyō of the Okayama Domain in Bizen Province and lord of Okayama Castle, died at a young age and was succeeded by his 3 year old son Ikeda Mitsunaka. The Tokugawa shogunate named the infant Mitsunaka daimyō of Tottori Domain in Hōki and Inaba provinces. In 1632, soon after Mitsunaka's accession to the position of daimyō, Senden, the fourth chief priest of Kōchin-ji in the present-day Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, sent his disciple Gōben to build a temple for the Ikeda clan. Senden ordered Gōben to build the temple in the scenic Kuritani area of present-day Tottori City, and charged him with building prayer temple for the veneration of the Shōkanzeon Bosatsu, or KannonBodhisattva. The temple was named Kannon-in. A statue of the Kannon Bodhisattva, reputably carved from rock from the mountain of Tottori Castle by the Gyōki, a Buddhist priest of the Nara period, was bestowed on the temple.
Move to Uemachi site
In 1639 the temple was moved to its present location in the Uemachi of present-day Tottori City to serve as a temple for the use of the Tottori Domain. Mitsunaka was deeply devoted to the Kannon Bodhisattva, and became a patron of the temple. At this time the extensive garan temple complex Kannon-in was planned and built, including its well-known garden. At this time Kannon-in was formally renamed Fudarakusan Jigen-ji Kannon-in. Mitsunaka's oldest son, the second lord of the Tottori Domain, named Kannon-in a kiganji prayer temple. The temple attained the high status of one of the eight prayer temples of the domain, a status it would retain throughout the Edo period.
Later history
After the abolition of the han system Kannon-in ceased to be a temple under the patronage of the Ikeda clan, and the temple lost its rice stipend and any form of monetary support. Soon after local adherents of Kannon-in took over the financial support of the temple, support that continues to the present. The Kannon-in garden was designated as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty by the Japanese government in 1937.
Garden of Kannon-in
The garden of Kannon-in was built is an example of an Edo period Japanese garden in the Chisenkanshō-shiki teien style, which literally means a garden of the "pond appreciation style". A Chisenkanshō-shiki garden is meant to be viewed from a fixed perspective from a single location, rather than a garden to stroll through and view from several angles. In the case of the Kannon-in the garden is viewed from the veranda of the sho-in, a hall used for the study of Buddhist sutras. Work on the garden began in 1650, and took ten years to complete. The garden utilizes the gentle slope of the landscape of Kannon-in. A depiction of the garden is found the Kannon-in ezu, or illustration of Kannon-in, published in the 無駄安留記 in 1858. The Mudaaruki is probably based on earlier works. The bekkan annex structure in the garden is in a slightly different location in the Mudaaruki than what is seen in the garden today, as the Kannon-in garden was probably restructured during the Meiji period.
