Virtual Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #19 Gyokusen-ji Temple

 

     Dairin-ji Temple was founded by Priest Jokei on the right bank of Tama River in 634, enshrining Bhaisajyaguru and Manjusri statues.  Years had passed and its buildings were ruined.  Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263), the 5th Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, found the devastation on his walking tour all over the country, and financially supported rebuilding the temple.  That “walking tour” part is a legend.  He was such a popular statesman who built a welfare-warfare shogunate that he left many legends.

     Anyway, years passed again, The temple went through the Warring States Period and Tama River repeatedly flooded.  Its Manjusri statue had gone.

     Priest Son'yu (?-1551) moved Dairin-ji Temple to the left bank of Tama River in 1504, and renamed it Gyokusen-ji Temple.  The renovation was approved by Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590) and 1 hector of farmland was given to the temple. It was revived by Priest Nendo (?-1645), and was financially supported by a farmer called Kawai somebody-or-other.

     When Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) was compiling the New Chorography on Musashi Province at the beginning of the 19th century, Ishigaya Atsukiyo (1801-1869) loaned 360-litter-rice-worth farmland to the temple.  In 1837, Atsukiyo became “tsukaiban,” who carried out administrative inspections over the shogunate samurai who were working far from Edo.  After Kotonobu’s death, Atsukiyo became an inspector in 1844, a magistrate of Sakai in 1849, a magistrate of Osaka in 1852, a financial magistrate in the shogunate in 1855, a magistrate of Edo in 1858.

     He was unlucky.  In 1858, Ansei Purge against Imperial Loyalists started under Ii Naosuke (1815-1860), who was later assassinated by a band of samurai and ronin from Mito Domain outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle.  After the assassination, the tide of the politics reversed.  Atsukiyo, who performed his duties, was dismissed from the occupation and was ordered to confine himself to his house.  In September, 1864, the shogunate started Choshu Expedition against the Mori Clan, one of the Loyalists.

     The tide reversed again, and Atsukiyo was appointed to be a magistrate of the military academy in 1865.  He retired in 1866.  This time, he was lucky.  In 1867, the Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown, and he died a natural death in 1869.

     The temple’s 11-faced Ekadasamukha statue is said to have been carved by Gyoki (668-749).  Beside the statue, there stand the Nagarjuna and Vaisravana statues.

Address: 3 Chome-10-23 Higashiizumi, Komae, Tokyo 201-0014

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