Virtual Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #34 Senju-in Temple

     Senju-in Temple was revived by Oyamada Shigeyoshi at the beginning of the Kamakura Period, impressed with the main deity, the 5-centimeter-tall 1000-armed Sahasrabhuja statue.

     Who was Oyamada Shigeyoshi?

     Chichibu Shigehiro belonged to a branch family of the Chichibu Clan.  Shigehiro’s 1st son, Shigeyoshi, lived in Hatakeyama and started calling his family Hatakeyama, and his 2nd son, Arishige, lived in Oyamada in 1171 and started calling his family Oyamada.  Arishige’s 2nd son, Shigeyoshi, lived in Onoji.  Arishige’s 1st son might have died young, and Shigeyoshi succeeded to the head of the Oyamada Family.

Arishige’s 3rd son, Shigenari (?-1205), lived in Inage and started calling his family Inage.  Shigenari's aunt, Nun Sabukawa (1137-1228), was the wet nurse of Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate.  Shigenari's wife was a younger sister of Hojo Masako (1157-1225), Yoritomo's wife.

     Shigenari loved his wife so deeply that he became a Buddhist priest after her death and built a bridge over the River Banyu to pray for the comfort of her in the other world.  Yoritomo attended the commemorating ceremony of the completion of the bridge, fell off his horse on the way back, got unconscious, and died a month later.

     The strong relation with the shogunate family caught the Inage Family up in a fatal tragedy.

     Hojo Tokimasa (1138-1215), Yoritomo's father-in-law, was appropriating the shogunate.  Tokimasa cornered Hatakeyama Shigetada (1164-1205) into corner.

     On June 19, 1205, Shigetada left his hometown in Obusuma County, Musashi Province, with 130-strong cavalry to answer the emergency call from Kamakura.  When he arrived at Futamata River, what he faced was an army of tens of thousands of strong.  He realized he was trapped.  Instead of retreating, he made up of his mind to die with a good grace.  It was his old friend, Adachi Kagemori (?-1248), who charged at him first.

     Shigenari was suspected to be Tokimasa's conspirator and was killed by Okawado Yukimoto (?-?) on June 23, and the  Inage Family was destroyed.

     Arishige’s 4th son, Shigetomo (?-1205), was entrusted the management of the Hangaya Manor of Ise Shrine and started calling his family Hangaya.  Shigetomo was also suspected to be Tokimasa's conspirator and was killed by Miura Yoshimura (?-1239) on June 23, and the Hangaya Family was destroyed.

     Arishige’s 5th son, Yukishige was also killed on the same day by someone somewhere.

     Oyamada Shigeyoshi survived, somehow or another survived.  He rebuilt the building of Hakusan Shrine in Onoji in 1220, and founded Shinmei Shrine in Oyamada in 1223.  Presumably, he revived Senju-in Temple in 1217, commemorating the 12th anniversary of his late brothers.

     He was succeeded by his son, Kosaburo, became a chief priest of Yagara-Hachiman-gu Shrine, and changed his name to Kakuen-bo.

     Priest Kenryu (?-?) revived the temple again in 1591, 1 year after the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan.  He deplored the decline of the temple and made a direct appeal to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), who had moved to the Kanto Region on August 1, 1590, to revive it.

     Priest Eman (?-1677) renewed the temple bell in 1653, had a 36-centimeter-tall 1000-armed Sahasrabhuja statue carved, put the original Sahasrabhuja statue in it, and enshrined them in the Kannon-do Hall.

     Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), the third shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, dissolved many clans to strengthen the power of the shogunate.  This increased the number of masterless and jobless samurai and destabilized society.  To restabilize the society, he strengthened the danka system.  Every citizen was supposed to belong to a Buddhist temple.  Eman took full advantage of the business opportunity.

     The precincts have an old itabi dated March 2, 1295.  The itabi was dug up in the middle of the 18th century, was concealed in a sacred box and is enshrined in the main hall today.

     On April 22, 1293, Taira Yoritsuna (1241-1293), the Butler of the Hojo Clan, was killed by his lord, Hojo Sadatoki (1272-1311), in the chaos caused by the Kamakura Earthquake, which itself killed 23,024 people.  Sadatoki replaced Yoritsuna with Hojo Munekata (1278-1305), who belonged to a branch family of the Hojo Clan.  However, Munekata was suspected of having an ambition to become the Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate and was killed by Sadatoki.  Munekata’s child  was put in a cage and was sank in the sea.

     Was the itabi buried under the ground to conceal something or someone unfavorable for the Sadatoki's regime?

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