Virtual Yokohama City 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #31 Hosho-ji Temple

     Hosho-ji Temple accumulated its estates for nearly 3 centuries.

     On August 3, in the first year of Koo, or in 1389, Tairago Yukiari, the lord of the Tairago Manor, presented a piece of field in Ishikawa Village.  The usage of Koo as the imperial name of the year suggests that the The Tairago Family was supporting the Northern Imperial Court.  The family owned and ruled the manor from the Kamakura Period, through the period of the Northern and Southern Courts and the First half of the Muromachi Period, till sometime in the Warring States Period.

The records of the temple exceptionally survived the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and the Bombing of Yokohama in 1945.

     On December 6, 1407, the Imperial Court gave Hosho-ji Temple another temple name Ho-Kongo-in.

     On September 3, 1416, the lord (who?) certified that the temple should own the field of Hikoshiro in Makita-cho as it had.

     On September 15, 1439, Priest Enchin transferred his fields to Acharya Tanshin.  On July 2, 1450, he presented 9 pieces of rice fields, some fields, and another piece of rice field in Negishi Village to Hoko-an Temple.

     On April, 26, 1442, some fields were presented to Yakushi-do Temple, which was managed by Hosho-ji Temple, by the lord of the manor.

     On September 2, 1456, Ninna-ji Temple offered a letter to promise Hosho-ji Temple to help as a branch temple. 

     On May 9, 1463, the field tax of Fujita Goro and Tairago Jiro was donated to Hosho-ji Temple permanently.  

     On August 30, 1466, the butler of the lord, Hori Masaie, presented some fields to the temple.

     On May 9, 1473, 1 hectare of field was transferred to Hosho-ji Temple.

On September 15, 1476, the local administrator of the lord, Kawachi Kaneyoshi, presented Hikokuro Hill to the temple.  In February, 1478, Ota Dokan authorized a kind of asylum to the temple.

   On June 3, 1545, Hojo Ujiyasu (1515-1571) exempted the temple from taxes.

     On May 3, 1556, the local administrator of the lord, Okazaki Masanaga, presented some fields to the temple.

     In April,1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) authorized a kind of asylum to the temple.  In November, 1591, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) confirmed the ownership of the fields the temple had been presented for generations.

      On February 15, 1624, the Tokugawa Shogunate qualified the temple to supervise 51 branch temples.

     As Hosho-ji Temple accumulated its estates, the Tairago Family disappeared from history.  Were they swindled by the temple?  Or did they choose to live with the temple, giving up living and fighting as samurais?  Or was it just sheer coincidence?

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