Virtual Quasi-Saigoku Inage 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Shugetsu-in Temple

 

     Oki Tanomonosuke, one of the vassals of the Later Hojo Clan, and his wife were living in Sugao Village, Tachibana County, Musashi Province.  In 1573, an earthquake hit the area and they were crushed to death by the fallen house.  Their son, Umanosuke, realized the transience of human lives, traveled through provinces, got to Mt. Koya, and placed his parents' ashes there.  He made himself a monk, and returned to the home village.  His offsprings adored him and attended to him with devotion.

     Katayama Yahei and his son, Tsumaharu, were living in Taira Village, Tachibana County.  When Odawara Castle got under the siege of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), they were in the castle.  After the castle fell and the Later Hojo Clan was destroyed, they came back home alive.

     Tsumaharu adopted Yamada Yaemon, and moved to Shimo-Sugao Village with his own 2 boys, and died sometime between 1593 and 1596.  His body was buried beside the hermitage Oki Umanosuke had built.  Tsumaharu’s offsprings had a monk live in the hermitage as a grave keeper.

     Katayama Yahei (?-1627) founded the temple, inviting Priest Sekishin as the second priest of the temple, and named the hermitage Shugetsu-in after Tsumaharu’s posthumous Buddhist name, Shugetsu.  Oki’s descendats also donated some farmland.

     The temple was burned down twice, sometime between 1624 and 1645, and sometime between 1673 and 1681.

     After the second devastation in fire, Shugetsu-in Temple was begging for a good main deity.  In 1699, the temple got late Genmu's guardian Buddhist image, the statue of Cundi, who has 16 arms and appears to be female.  Both the 2 temples belonged to the Caodong School of Chan Buddhism.

     Who was Genmu?

     Yamauchi Tadayoshi (1592-1665), the second lord of the Tosa Domain, had 4 recorded daughters.  One of Tadayoshi’s daughters founded Daijo-in Temple, #9 of Quasi-Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, in 1625, and died in 1680.  Her posthumous Buddhist name was Genmu (literally Illusion Dream).  But none of the 4 recorded daughters’ careers matched Mugen’s personal history.  Mugen was a very mysterious historical figure.

     Tadayoshi's eldest daughter, whose mother wasn’t recorded, became the second wife of Kurushima Michikiyo (1629-1700), the second lord of the Mori Domain in Buzen Province.  The second was recorded as Princess Sayohime, who was given birth by Jushoin (?-1661), who was Michikiyo's concubine. Sayohime was married to Inui Nobukatsu, the highest dignitary of the Tosa Domain. The third, named Princess Umehime, was married to Omiya Toshimitsu (1603-1684), an aristocrat in Kyoto.  Her mother wasn’t recorded, and whether she shared the same mother with the eldest daughter is unknown.  The fourth, Kiyohime, who was given birth by Tadayoshi’s lawful wife, Kumahime, got married to Matsushita Nagatsuna (1610-1658), who was the lord of the Nihonmatsu Domain (600 thousand goku).  But Nagatsuna was demoted to the Miharu domain (30 thousand goku) in 1628.  In 1640, Kiyohime gave birth to Toyotsuna (1640-1657).  Nagatsuna had another boy and a girl whose mother(s) is/are unrecorded.  But Nagatsuna was further dismissed and confined under Tadayoshi at Kuma village in Tosa Province in 1644 for the reason that he had deranged.  It is impossible to relate the incident with the foundation of the temple in 1625.

     Then again who was Genmu?

     In 1623, Kumahime, the lawful wife of Tadayoshi, moved from Tosa to Edo.  She had given birth to Tadatoyo (1609-1669), Tadanao (1611-1667), and Kiyohime (1613-?).  2 years after Kumahime’s arrival at Edo, Daijo-in Temple was founded, and Genmu stayed there until her death.  In 1632, Kumahime died at the age of 38.  If the posthumous Buddhist name, Genmu, embodied her personality, she might have been always seeing illusions and dreams.  Did Kumahime have the unrecorded 2nd girl that was always seeing illusions and dreams?

     What if Genmu was Kiyohime?  Tadatoyo and Kiyohime caught smallpox on their way from Tosa to Edo.  Did she have too bad sequela to get married?  And became Genmu?  If so, who made the wife of Nagatsuna?  A dummy?

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