Virtual Kozukue 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokohama #6 Zuiryu-in Temple

     Kannon-ji Temple was founded in 1441 by Priest Eiso, who died in 1529.  At the time, the temple was no more than a small hermitage.  If he had founded the temple at the age of 20, he might have died at the age of 108.  Not impossible, but believe it or not.  If he had founded the temple before the age of 11, the youngest age when samurai came of age, he might have died in his 80’s or 90’s.  Quite possible.  If he was forced to live in priesthood in spite of, say, being executed, there must have been a serious incident in 1441.

     Ashikaga Harutora was born on June 13, 1394.  At the age of 9, he entered Seiren-in Temple, on June 21, 1403.  On March 4, 1408, he became a priest, and was named Gien.  Ashikaga Yoshikazu (1407-1425) and Yoshimochi (1386-1428) died of a disease one after another, and the shogunate became vacant.  Chief vassals assembled at Iwashimizu-Hachiman-gu Shrine and decided the next shogun by lot on January 17, 1428.  And Gien became the sixth shogun, Yoshinori (1394-1441), who assassinated his political opponents one after another.

     Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), the deputy shogun in Kamakura, was forced to commit suicide by Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394-1441), the then shogun.  Yuki Ujitomo (1402-1441) sheltered Mochiuji’s 2 sons, Shuno-maru and Yasuo-maru, in his castle, and rebelled against Yoshinori in 1440. On April 16, 1441, his castle fell and he and his son were killed in the fights.  Shuno-maru and Yasuo-maru were arrested and were to be transferred to Kyoto.  But on their way, at Tarui, Mino Province, they were killed, with their death poems left:

“Summer weeds,

Their flowers blooming in Aono Field

Who knows their future?” (Shuno-maru)

“Who knows the future?

Our lives are to be limited today

Here away from home.” (Yasuo-maru)

     Yoshinori also killed his younger brother, Priest Gisho (1404-1441).  He also killed his powerful vassals, Isshiki Yoshitsura (1400-1440), Toki Mochiyori (?-1440), and others.  Finally he was assassinated by his vassal, Akamatsu Mitsusuke (1381-1441) on June 24, 2 months and 8 days after the execution of the 2 young brothers: Shuno-maru and Yasuo-maru.

     Anything might have happened in 1441.  A too-young-to-kill son of any samurai on any side could have been confined to a small hermitage in a small village near Kamakura in 1441.  The 2 young brothers’ younger brother, Shigeuji (1438-1497), survived.  He later became a deputy shogun in Kamakura, succeeding his late father, Mochiuji.

     Eiso survived too.  Somehow or others, he survived.  So, he could return to secular life, to make a samurai.  But Eiso didn’t.  For some reason, he didn’t.  Instead of making a samurai and killing his opponents as Yoshinori had done, he had to sight countless fights and assassinations after 1441.  He even witnessed the Onin War from 1467 to 1477, which drove the Japanese society into the Warring States Period.  Who knows whose future?  In 1529, when Eiso passed away, Honda Shigetsugu (1529-1596) was barely born.  He was to join the first fight of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), and also was to help him suppress other war lords and bring Japan under control.  Did Eiso know the future?

     About 20 generations later, Priest Somo (?-1679) lived in the hermitage, and made it a temple.

Address: 501 Kawashimacho, Hodogaya Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-0045Phone: 045-371-3574