Virtual Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Taisho-ji Temple

     Eiho-ji Temple used to be a shrine temple of Fudaten Shrine nearby, which was founded by 900.  Fudaten literally means Cloth Plenty Heaven.

In 840, the third official history book,  Nihon Koki, was compiled, which covered the years 792-833.  Its volume 8 had an entry about a drifted alien:

     "In July, Autumn, 799, one man on a small boat drifted ashore in Mikawa Province.  He wore full-length cloth, a loincloth, but not trousers.  He covered his left shoulder with a piece of dark blue cloth, which looked like a Buddhist priest’s sash.  He was about 20 years old, was about 167 centimeters tall, and had 10-centimeter-long ears.  We couldn’t understand his language, nor could identify his nationality.  When Chinese people saw him, they said he was a Kunlun man.  Later, he mastered Japanese, and said he was from India.  He was always playing an one-string harp.  His singing voice was always melancholy and sorrowful.  When we checked his belongings, we found something like grass seeds.  He said they were cotton seeds.”

     Those days, Chinese called those from South-East Asia as Kunlun people.  The man might have been blown eastward somewhere in South China Sea, and washed on the Black Current as far as off Mikawa Provinces.

     According to tradition, it was a farmer along Tama River who first succeeded in weaving cotton cloth in Japan.  Accordingly, the area came to be called Chofu, namely Tax Cloth, if you believe it.

     The Kunlun man taught Japanese people how to grow cotton plants, and they made it, just for a year.  It was after the 16th century that Japanese people succeeded in growing cotton plants serially.  Till then, cotton cloth was a luxurious imported goods from China and Korea.

     The oldest record of trading cotton seeds in Musashi Province dates back to 1521, and that of cotton cloth back to 1571.  In 1574, Hojo Ujikuni (1541-1597) made a military rule to provide foot soldiers cotton clothes.  That implies the spread of the cotton cloth.

Priest Yuyo organized Eiho-ji Temple into the Shingon Sect.

     It is unknown when and by whom Hosho-ji Temple was founded.

     It is unknown when and by whom Fudo-in Temple was founded.  Its written records lists Priest Genshun (?-1590).  The temple must have been founded before the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan in 1590.  Its Acalanatha statue is said to have been carved by Roben (689-773), who establised Todai-ji Temple in Nara.

     In 1915, that is in the 4th year of Taisho, Eiho-ji, Hosho-ji, and Fudo-in Temples merged to form Taisho-ji Temple.

Address: 1 Chome−22−1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0021 

Phone: 042-482-2370