Virtual Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #33 Koan-ji Temple

 

     Tawara Tota (891-958) was an official of the Shimotsuke Provincial Government.  He was from Tawara Village, Kawachi County, Shimotsuke Province.

     In 939, Taira Masakado (?-940) tried to be independent from Japan in the Kanto Region.  Tota suppressed Masakado’s revolt, and was promoted to be the governor of Shimotsuke and Musashi Provinces.  In Musashi Province, he built a new residence in Katamachi near the Musashi Provincial Government.

     Later, the residence was transferred to Kensho-ji Temple.  Why?

Tota’s 1st son, Chitsune (?-1012) lived in Oyama, Tsuga County, Shimotsuke Province, and ruled the area.  The 3rd son, Chiharu, got a promotion in Kyoto thanks to the influence of Tota.  He, however, was involved in the Anna Incident in 969, was arrested by Minamoto Mitsusue, and was exiled to Oki Province.  The careers of Tota’s 2nd, 4th, and 5th sons, Chitoki, Chikuni, and Chigusa respectively, were not recorded.

     The Anna Incident was the power game between Fujiwara Morotada (920-969), the then Second Minister, and Minamoto Takaakira (914-983), the then First Minister, in which Morotada won.  In 985, Mitsusue’s eldest brother, Mitsunaka (912-997), was appointed to be the governor of Shimotsuke Province.  The other elder brother of Mitsusue, Mitsumasa, and later Mitsusue himself were appointed to be the governors of Musashi Province in succession in 990’s.

     Tota’s offsprings were purged from the central government, and fell behind central military aristocrats such as the 3 brothers.  One of the offsprings of Tota might have become a Buddhist monk and lived in the old residence in Musashi Province.

     Legend has it that Tawara Tota exterminated a gigantic centipede.  One day, a gigantic snake lay down over the Karahashi Bridge at Seta in Omi Province.  People there were too scared to cross the bridge.  Tawara Tota came along, boldly stamped on the snake, and crossed the bridge.  The snake changed into a human, and asked Tota a favor.  The snake's family had been living in Mt. Mikami.  A gigantic centipede came along there and tortured them.  The snake in a human figure asked Tota to exterminate the centipede.  Tota went to Mt. Mikami and shot his first 2 arrows, but they just bounced back.  He spit on the third arrow and shot it, which successfully killed the centipede.  Tota was given a straw bag which never became empty and a bolt of silk which never ran out.

     One day, Tawara Tota started calling himself Fujiwara Hidesato, picking up a brand name, claiming that he was a descendant of Fujiwara Fusamae (681-737).  In 703, Fusamae was appointed to the inspector over the local governments in the Tokai Region.  In 709, his job included inspection over the local governments in the Tozan Region, which included Mutsu and Dewa Provinces, that is, the Tohoku Region today.  After the inspection, the central government drafted soldiers from the regions to suppress northern aliens in Mutsu and Echigo Provinces.  He was an expert of dealing the northern alien issues.  Some northern aliens had surrendered themselves to Japan because it offered them a good deal.  They had to swear obedience and offer local special products.  In return, they were exempted from taxes and were given food and clothes.  That must have looked more like a contract or trade to them.  Fusamae’s fame among those subordinate northern aliens was still lingering among them even in Tota’s days.

     Fusamae’s 5th son was Uona (721-783).  Uona’s 5th son was Fujinari (776-822).  Fujinari’s 1st son was Toyosawa (?-887), who stayed in Shimotsuke Province even after his father went back to Kyoto, and he worked for the provincial government there and was married with a daughter of a lower-ranking official, the Tottori Family.  Toyosawa’s only son was Murao (?-932).  He worked for the provincial government there and was married with a daughter of a intermediate-ranking official, the Kashima Family.  Murao’s first son was Tota.  So says Tota’s family tree.  If the family tree is true, Fujinari was born when Uona was 55 years old.  It was almost impossible in the ancient times.  They needed one more generation between Uona and Fujinari.  Tota (or his father?) miscalculated when he hooked up his family tree to that of the Fujiwara Clan.

     Yet, it is also clear that Tota and his father had climbed up the social ladder step by step, and Tota successfully sent out his son to the central political circles.

     Tawara Tota must have been a military genius.  His residence, which later became Kensho-ji Temple, was built on the commanding heights near the provincial government.  Accordingly, the temple was used as a military post by historic samurai.

     Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189), who militarily succeeded in overthrowing the Taira Clan, was politically refused to join the Kamakura Shogunate.  On his flight from Kamakura, he stayed in the temple for a while, and Benkei (?-1189), his vassal, copied the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra there.

     Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338) raised his army in Ikushima Shrine in Kozuke Province on May 8, 1333.  He defeated the garrisons of the Kamakura Shogunate along Iruma River on May 11, and those along Kume River on the 12th.  When he carried out a forced crossing of Tama River on the 15th, it was Kensho-ji Temple that he placed the main body of his army.  He finally seized and captured Kamakura on the 22nd, but Kensho-ji Temple burned down in one of the battles.

     Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) built Ankoku-ji Temples in 66 provinces and 2 islands. In Musashi Province, he revived Kensho-ji Temple and renamed it Ko-Ankoku-zenji Temple, which was later shortened to Koan-ji, around 1340.  As he became the first shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate, the temple became a military post for the Ashikaga Clan.

     In 1381, Ashikaga Ujimitsu (1359-1398), the 2nd Kanto Deputy Shogun, pitched his camp in the temple, on his way to suppress Oyama Yoshimasa (?-1382), who claimed to be a descendant of Tawara Tota.

     In 1399, Ashikaga Mitsukane (1378-1409), the 3rd Kanto Deputy Shogun, moved out of Kamakura and called up the samurai in the Kanto Region to the temple to overthrow Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the 3rd Shogun in Kyoto.  He was remonstrated by Uesugi Norisada (1375-1413), the then Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate, and gave up his idea.

     In 1423, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), the 4th Kanto Deputy Shogun, stayed in the temple on his way back from suppressing Oguri Mitsushige (?-1423).  Who was Oguri Mitsushige?

     In the Muromachi Period, whose central government was located at Muromachi in Kyoto, the Kanto area was half-independent and was governed by the regional government in Kamakura, which was ruled by the Kanto Deputy Shogun.  Both the central shoguns and the Kanto deputy shoguns were from the Ashikaga Clan.  The both rather rivaled each other and some Kanto deputy shoguns even tried to become central shoguns.

     To check the rivaling attempts, the central shoguns appointed some powerful Kanto samurais to be directly feudatory to them.

     Those directly feudal to the central shoguns were called Kyoto Servants.  Although they resided within the jurisdiction of the Kanto Deputy Shogun, they neither had to serve the Kamakura office nor were supposed to be under the command of the Kanto Deputy Shogun.   

     The Kyoto Servants in Kanto included the Takeda Family in Kai Province, the Yamairi, Oguri, Makabe and Daijo Families in Hitachi Province, and the Utsunomiya, Nasu, and Onodera Families in Shimotsuke Province.  They often took anti-Kanto-Deputy-Shogun movements, and the central shogunate criticized them ostensibly but was actually pulling strings.  That, of course, irritated the Kanto Deputy Shoguns.

     In 1423, the 5th Kanto Deputy Shogun, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), finally destroyed Oguri Mitsushige and his family as a warning to other Kyoto Servants.

In 1438, Mochiuji raised his army against the central shogunate and advanced to Koan-ji Temple from Kamakura.  The shogunate in Kyoto was well-prepared.  They moved the Kyoto Servants and had them seize Kamakura.  Losing where to return, Mochiuji was cornered into a suicide, with his 3 sons left very young.

     Yuki Ujitomo (1402-1441) sheltered Mochiuji’s 2 sons, Shuno-maru and Yasuo-maru, in his castle, and rebelled against Yoshinori in 1440.  That was the Yuki War.

    On April 16, 1441, Ujitomo's castle fell and he and his eldest son were killed in the fights.  Shuno-maru and Yasuo-maru were arrested and were to be transferred to Kyoto.  But on their way, at Tarui, Mino Province, they were killed, with their death poems left:

“Summer weeds,

Their flowers blooming in Aono Field

Who knows their future?” (Shuno-maru)

“Who knows the future?

Our lives are to be limited today

Here away from home.” (Yasuo-maru)

     When the Kyotoku War broke out in 1455, Ashikaga Shigeuji (1438-1497), the youngest son of Mochiuji’s and the 5th Kanto Deputy Shogun, held the temple and beat back off Uesugi Fusaaki (1435-1466), the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate.  The war led the Kanto Region into the Warring States Period.

     In the Warring States Period, the Later Hojo Clan moved from east to west, utilizing Koan-ji Temple as a foothold.  Then, the Uesugi Clan pushed them back capturing the temple.  They repeated seesaw battles.  Nagao Kagetora (1530-1578) made expeditions via the temple to Kamakura from Echigo Province, taking advantage of poor harvest in the Kanto Region.  Once the Takeda Clan demonstrated their power through the eastern half of the Kanto Region from north to south before they advanced for Kyoto.  Each time front lines moved from east to west or vise versa, Koan-ji Temple was made military use of.  That made the temple devastated.

     After the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) was transferred to the Kanto Region, and the region became settled and basically peaceful.  Pax Tokugawa lasted till the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1867.  Priest Tokko revived the temple at the turn of the 17th century.

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