Virtual Quasi-Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Dairaku-in Temple

 

     Dairaku-in Temple used to be the shrine temple of Hie Shrine.

     Prince Tsunesada (825-884) had 2 sons.  According to tradition, his second son, Monk Keiko, was going to share God San'o in Mt. Hiei.  He first visited Akasaka Village, Fuwa County, Mino Province, and then Atsuta Shrine in Owari Province.  He further traveled east to Kawasaki Village, Inage Manor, Musashi Province.  Finally, he chose Maruko to settle down in on June 14, 809.  Sometime after that, Dairaku-in Temple was founded as the shrine temple.  The temple was revived in 1679.

     Kira Yoriyasu (?-1562), was working and fighting for the Kanto Deputy Shogunate at first.  In 1524, Uesugi Tomooki (1488-1537) lost Edo Castle to Hojo Ujitsuna (1487-1541), and Yoriyasu dumped the shogunate for the Later Hojo Clan.  About 2 decades later, Yoriyasu adopted a boy between Horikoshi Rokuro and Sakihime (?-1586), a daughter of Hojo Ujitsuna (1486-1541), although he had his own son.  The boy became Kira Ujitomo (1542-1603), and made the head of the family in 1561.   Ujitomo further got married with the daughter of Hojo Gen’an (1493-1589).  The Kira Family was actually taken over by the Later Hojo Clan.

     One day, Ujitomo had Chokan carve the sitting statue of Gotama Siddhattha, and presented it to Dairaku-in Temple to pray for fulfilling wishes of the family and the vassals.

     In 1590, the Later Hojo clan was destroyed by Toyotomi Hideyosi (1536-1598), and Ujitomo started working and fighting for Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616).  Although he was dispatched by the Later Hojo Clan into the Kira Family to control them, he controlled the family and its vassals well enough to change sides.

     One day, Ujitomo had Chokan carve the sitting statue of Gotama Siddhattha, and presented it to Dairaku-in Temple to pray for fulfilling wishes of the family and the vassals.

     Ah?

     The question is whether that one day was before 1590 or after.

     Whichever it was, the statue answered for Ujitomo’s wishes.  His descendants kept working for the Tokugawa Shogunate.  9 generations after Ujitomo, Kira Yoshikata died as the last head of samurai family in 1879, 12 years after the Meiji Restoration, with the family ruined.

     Did the supernatural powers of the statue expire?  Or didn’t Ujitomo  have good enough visions to make suitable and appropriate wishes for his descendants to live in the modernized society?

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