Virtual Quasi-Saigoku Inage 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Myoo-in Templet

 

     Myoo-in Templet was founded by Priest Ryoshiki at the turn of the 17th century.  That is all the temple history tells us.

     There is a hierarchy among those who work at a shrine and hold religious ceremonies there.  The head is called Kannushi, who is primarily an intermediary between a god or gods in the shrine and ordinary people, and who transmits the god's or the gods' will to common humans.  The second class is called Negi, and the third Hoori.

     Suwa Yorishige (1516-1541), the then head of the Suwa Clan, was Hoori of Suwa Grand Shrine.  In June, 1541, Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) invaded the Suwa County, Shinano Province, and took Yorishige back to Kai Province.  Yorishige killed himself in Toko-ji Temple.  His brother, Yoritaka (1528-1542), stayed in Suwa, but was slandered by Yajima Mitsukiyo, the Negi of the shrine, and was forced to kill himself in Kai Province.  The main family of the Suwa Clan died out.

     It was Yorishige's cousin, Yoritada (1536-1606), who became a vassal of Shingen, that succeeded the Hoori of the shrine.  The Takeda Clan was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) in 1582.  As Nobunaga was assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582) 3 months later, Yoritada became independent, making full use of the political and military vacuum.  Soon, however, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) started invading Shinano and Kai Provinces.  Yoritada made approaches to Hoju Ujimasa (1538-1590) to counter Ieyasu, but he surrendered to Ieyasu and became a vassal of his by the end of the year.

     Suwa Yorihisa belonged to one of the branch families of Yoritada's, and was his grandson.  He was a vassal of Hojo Ujinao (1562-1591). He moved to Inage County, Musashi Province, after 1590, when the Hojo Clan was destroyed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and Hojo Ujimasa killed himself.  Yoshihisa became a farmer.  In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu was forced to move to Edo, Musashi Province, by Hideyoshi, and Yoritada and his offsprings also moved to Musashi Province as samurai.

     The area Yorihisa and his family moved in used to be just a dry riverbed and they opened up the wilds.  They made a colony and named it Suwa Village.  They invited a divided spirit of the god of Suwa Grand Shrine, and founded Suwa Shrine in the village.

     A broken hermitage was said to have been located where Suwa-san Myoo-in Enno-ji Templet is today.  The hermitage was made into a temple by Priest Ryoshiki at the turn of the 17th century.  It was commonly called with its jigo, Enno-ji, at first, but with its ingo, Myoo-in, after 1668.  In 1741, it officially became a branch temple of Saimyo-ji Temple, #18 of Quasi-Saigoku Inage 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     Curiously enough, when the Suwa Shrine in the village holds its annual festival, the 2 statues of Acalanatha are carried out of Myoo-in Temple.  The reason hasn’t been handed down.

     Near the temple, there stands a mound for the purpose of evacuating from floods.  The village alone used to have 3 of them, one of which has been abolished though.  They built those evacuation mounds with the surplus construction soil which was dug out and left when the Tokugawa Shogunate built an irrigation channel, Nikaryo Channel.  Reclaiming a dry riverbed wasn’t an easy job.  It was back-to-back with natural disasters.

Address: 3 Chome-14-3 Suwa, Takatsu Ward, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0004

Phone: 044-822-2211