Virtual Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage had been organized by 1755.  As its name suggests, it might have copied Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in stead of Saigoku or Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     In 1748, 1749, and 1750 alone, there were 41 peasant uprisings in 17 provinces.  The uprisings had 4 characteristics in common.  First, each uprising was organized in each domain-wide.  Second, local administrators were targeted, and some of them committed harakiri suicides or died of illness.  Third, village heads were also targeted.  Fourth, they broke out not only in daimyo domains but also in shogunate domains.  The 4 features suggest that class differentiation was progressing in villages, and that not only some daimyos but also the shogunate were in fiscal crises.  That is, the patrimonialism which had been reinforced by Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751), who was ironically praised to be the restorer of the Tokugawa Shogunate, was in bankruptcy.  To cope with the crises and the failure of the patrimonialism, mercantilism was going to be introduced in the middle of the 18th century.  That kind of social unsteadiness might have had people look to Avalokitesvara.

     We also have to talk about the Kanesawa Family and its Kanesawa Bunko, or Kanesawa Library.  The family was the branch of the Hojo Clan, and they called themselves Hojo until the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate.

     Kanesawa Sanetoki (1224-1276) studied the Myogyo Discipline, one of the disciplines under the ancient Daigaku-ryo system, an ancient Imperial university in Japan.  The head of the discipline was succeeded by the head of the Kiyohara Family, traced back to Kiyohara Hirozumi (934-1009).  8 generations after, Noritaka (1199-1265) moved to Kamakura and gave lessons to shoguns and other important samurais, including Sanetoki.  Sanetoki was a good students, and collected many classics written in Chinese or in Japanese.  That is, he started building Kanesawa Library.  His descendants kept building the library, and his grandson, Sadaaki (1278-1333), collected and even copied many classics in Kyoto when he was working for Rokuhara Tandai, the Kyoto Agency of the Kamakura Shogunate, from 1302 to 1304.  Sadaaki had an eye disease in June, 1330, and killed himself when Kamakura fell to Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338), who destroyed the Kamakura Shogunate, cooperating with Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358).

     I’m looking to something very cultural in Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage.