Virtual Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #27 Keisho-ji Temple

 

     Keisho-ji Temple was founded by Priest Choken in 1463.  Priest Genshi converted the temple to Shingon School.  What sect or school did it belong to before the conversion?  Presumably, it could have belonged to the Japanes mountain aceticism.

     The Kyotoku War lasted for 28 years from 1454 till 1482.  During the war, Ashikaga Shigeuji (1438-1497), the Kanto Deputy Shogun in Kamakura, relinquished Kamakura and moved to Koga in 1457.  In 1458, the Muromachi Shogunate sent out another deputy shogun, Ashikaga Masatomo (1435-1491), from Kyoto for Kamakura, but he couldn’t enter Kamakura and stayed in Horikoshi, Izu Province.  From then on, there were Koga Deputy Shogun and Horikoshi Deputy Shogun in the Kanto Region.  On October 14, 1459, the 2 camps had a big battle in Ota Manor, Musashi Province. That was the start of the Warring States Period in the region.

     Choken started the temple on one of those days.  To pray for the comfort of those who had been killed in the battles?  Or to escape from this world?

     There is a hill on the back of the temple, and the hill has a water fall, which is called Acalanatha Fall.  An Acalanatha statue is enshrined in front of the fall.  There is also Hakusan-sha Shrine, which is based in the mountain worship for Mt. Hakusan in Kaga Province.  All in all, the area must have been a holy place since ancient times.  In 1964, the hill was excavated, and more than 40 houses of the Jomon Period (from B.C. 12,000 to B.C. 200) were found.  The houses queued up in a horseshoe shape.

     The precincts have Tsurukawa Nursery School.

Address: 2177 Okuramachi, Machida, Tokyo 195-0062

Phone: 042-735-5469