Quasi-Saigoku Inage 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

      Quasi-Saigoku Inage 33 Kannon Pilgrimage is located where there used to be the Inage Manor, which used to be managed by the Inage Family.  The founder and first head of the family was Inage Shigenari (?-1205), whose father, Oyamada Arishige (?-?), was the manager of the Oyamada Manor.  Shigenari's aunt, Nun Sabukawa (1137-1228), was the wet nurse of Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate.  Shigenari's wife was a younger sister of Hojo Masako (1157-1225), Yoritomo's wife.

     Shigenari loved his wife so deeply that he became a Buddhist priest after her death and built a bridge over the River Banyu to pray for the comfort of her in the other world.  Yoritomo attended the commemorating ceremony of the completion of the bridge, fell off his horse on the way back, got unconscious, and died a month later.

     The strong relation with the shogunate family caught the Inage Family up in a fatal tragedy.

     Hojo Tokimasa (1138-1215), Yoritomo's father-in-law, was appropriating the shogunate.  Tokimasa cornered Hatakeyama Shigetada (1164-1205) into corner.

     On June 19, 1205, Shigetada left his hometown in Obusuma County, Musashi Province, with 130-strong cavalry to answer the emergency call from Kamakura.  When he arrived at Futamata River, what he faced was an army of tens of thousands of strong.  He realized he was trapped.  Instead of retreating, he made up of his mind to die with a good grace.  It was his old friend, Adachi Kagemori (?-1248), who charged at him first.

 

    Shigenari was suspected to be Tokimasa's conspirator and was killed by Okawado Yukimoto (?-?) on June 23, and the family was destroyed.  How short-lived the Inage Family was!  We have plenty of historic samurai heroes on books and TV dramas.  Countless historical samurai figures must have come and gone unbeknownst.

     On September 1, 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake occurred.  The earthquake caused liquefaction at Shimomachiya in Chigasaki City, Kanagawa.  The  liquefaction revealed 7 log bridge pillars, which were examined by Dr. Numata Yorisuke (1867-1934).  The bridge was presumed to be what was built by Shigenari, and was estimated to be 21 meters wide and 60n meters long.

     The Inage Castle was located at the northern end of Kawasaki City.  When the main building of Joraku-ji Temple was disassembled and repaired in 1967 and 1968, an old document was found.  It said the Inage Manor had 206.63 hectares of rice field, and paid the tax of 3221.5 square meters of silk to the Fujiwara Clan.  In 1171, 55.624 hectares of rice field was added.