Virtual Kozukue 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokohama #32 Tokai-ji Temple

     In the first half of the 8th century, Gyoki (668-749) visited the area, carved a statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, and built a hermitage to enshrine it.  The temple still keeps the small knife Gyoki used to carve the statue.

     At the turn of the 9th century, Priest Kaien made it Tokan-ji Temple.  Later, it became out of practice once.  Priest Seikai asked for the re-foundation of the temple in 1543, and Kasahara Nobutame (?-1557), the deputy lord of the Kozukue Castle, supported it, with his Buddhist memorial tablet left in the temple.  When Priest Giin (?-1652) revived the temple, Kasahara Nobuyasu and Hasegawa Tamehisa supported it with their own money.  It is unrecorded who Nobuyasu and Tamehisa were.  Probably the descendants of Nobutame.

     Nobutame’s son, Yasukatsu was killed in the battle when Takeda Katsuyori (1546-1582) attacked the Later Hojo Clan in 1569.  Yasukatsu’s son, Terushige was killed in the Battle of the Tokura Castle in 1581.  In the battle, Kasahara Masaharu (?-1590) went over to Takeda Katsuyori, so it is unknown by which side Terushige was killed.  Masaharu went over to the Later Hojo Clan again after Katsuyori was killed by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) in1582.  When Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked the Later Hojo Clan in 1590, Masaharu tried to go over to Hideyoshi but was killed by Hojo Ujinao (1562-1591), with the betrayal uncovered.

     Terushige’s son, Shigemasa was hired by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) after the downfall of the Later Hojo Clan in 1590.  In 1591, his ownership of Dai Village, Tsuzuki County, Musashi Province was approved, and his descendants became a hatamoto, a direct retainer of the Tokugawa Shogunate.  As Nobuyasu’s yasu used the same Chinese character with Ieyasu’s yasu, he might have lived in Ieyasu’s days.

     The main deity of Tokan-ji Temple is the statue of Acalanatha, known as the Immovable Wisdom King in East Asia.  What did the Immovable Wisdom King think, witnessing Masaharu’s moves?

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