Virtual Kozukue 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokohama #11 Shoin-ji Temple

     Priest Myokan (1273-1354)  worked as the head of Kencho-ji Temple in Kamakura.  After he retired, he spent  his remaining years in a hermitage, Seito-an Temple.  Priest Kozan (?- 1675) changed the name of the temple to Shoin-ji.  Surprisingly, the main deity, the wooden sitting statue of Amitabha, was appraised for being carved in the 8th century, and is preserved in the Tokyo National Museum now.  It is unknown where it came from, and what it had done for 5 centuries. 

     The Avalokitesvara statue?  There is Komagata Tenman-gu Shrine on the other side of the ridge.  The precincts used to have the Kannon-do Hall with the statue of Ekadasamukha, who has 11 faces.  But it was moved to Shoin-ji Temple after the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order of 1868.

     Shoin-ji Temple has the grave of Satomi Yoshitaka (?-1650).  His registered name as samurai was Tadashige, with Tada given by the then shogun.  He rather used the name Yoshitaka for a certain reason.

     Satomi Yoshiyori (1543-1587) was a pirate war lord based in Awa Province, at the eastern side of the gateway to Edo Bay.  From Ancient times, crossing and passing through the gateway was tough, and even a legendary hero, Yamato Takeru, had to offer his wife.  Yoshiyori ruled the whole Chiba Peninsula and had the command of Edo Bay.  After the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603, his son, Yoshitaka, was moved to an inland province, Kozuke Province.  On October 1, 1613, he was fired as a daimyo, a Japanese feudal lord, for the dereliction of duty, and was spending his jobless life at Ogose Village in the province.   When his younger brother-in-law, Sakai Tadakatsu (1594-1647), was promoted to Dewa Province in 1622, Yoshitaka was hired and move to the province.  In 1642, when Tadakatsu was sick in bed, Yoshitaka tried to replace Tadakatsu's heir with his son, only to be obstructed by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1647.  Later, he retired to Tsurumi, Musashi Province.  One day, he made up his mind to achieve nirvana while still alive to save people from a plague.  That means he went on a fast until his death. The villagers built Jigen-do Hall where he died.  He became known for answering prayers for curing smallpox.  The disease, against which he died, might have been smallpox.  According to an official paper handed in by his son, Yoshihisa (1634-?), to the Sakai Clan, however, Yoshitaka died of a disease in September, 1650.

     At the foot of Shoin-ji Temple, there used to be a small river port, where boats from the sea unloaded.  After struggling for something throughout his life, did Yoshitaka want to sense the sea again in his last days by living in Tsurumi?

Address: 1 Chome-18-2 Higashiterao, Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 230-0077Phone: 045-571-1701