Virtual Kanesawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 Shokaku-ji Temple

 

     The Mamiya Family suffered many casualties in the Gongen-do Battle.  Shokaku-ji Temple was founded in 1428 by the village head, Takanashi Rin'emon, to pray for them.  The first priest, Kakugei, died in the year.

     Gongen-do Temple used to be located where Kogaya Elementary School (1-1 Kogaya, Kanagawa Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 221-0051) is located today.  It was often used as a fort as it was located along the border between Musashi and Sagami Provinces.  It is not clear against whom the Mamiya Family fought.

     In 1425, the 5th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshikazu (1407-1425), died.  In 1428, Ashikaga Yoshimochi (1386-1428), the 4th shogun who had retired in 1423, died.  As the shogunate became vacant, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), the 4th deputy shogun in Kanto, seeked the post of the 6th shogun.  That caused countless battels and fights in the Kanto Region.  The Gongen-do Battle might have been one of them.

     Yet, it is unknown against whom the Mamiya Family was fighting at the time.  Those days, anybody could fight against anyone.

     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).

     It was Yoshinori that forced Mochiuji to commit suicide.  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.

     1420's was the start of the days when anybody could fight against anyone.  Japan was plunging into the Warring States Period.  The Mamiya Family survived the period.  They were based in Hitorizawa, Kuraki County, Musashi Province.  They worked and fought for the Later Hojo Clan first.  Mamiya Yasutoshi (1518-1590), for example, was appointed to a magistrate when Hojo Ujitsuna (1487-1541) rebuilt Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine in Kamakura in 1530’s.  When the Later Hojo Clan garrisoned part of the Izu Sea Forces in Miura Peninsula, Yasutoshi managed them.

     After the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan, the family worked and fought for the Tokugawa Clan.  After the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, they worked for the shogunate.

     One of the descendants included Kotonobu (1777-1841).  In 1810, the Academy of the shogunate started compiling provincial topographies.  Kotonobu participated in compiling those of Musashi and Sagami Provinces.

     The Takanashi Family, who were fighting and working for the Arai Family under the Mamiya Family, also survived, we can find some Takanashi Rin'emons in some records in the Tokugawa Peeriod.  The head of the family could have inheritaed the first name Rin’emon.

     It is unknown, however, what has become of the Arai Family since then.

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