Virtual Hachioji 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Shinkaku-ji Temple

     Shinkaku-ji Temple was founded in 1234.

     In 1230 and 1231, the Great Kanki Famine hit Japan.  On June 7, 1230, it snowed in Musashi Province.  On July 16, there was frost.  By the spring, 1231, people had eaten up food, and one third of people had died.  It was on one of those days that Jogyo died.  Did he kill himself, despairing of life?  In 1232, Hojo Yasutoki (1183-1242), the third regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, promulgated the Formulary of Adjudications, the legal code of the Kamakura shogunate, to stabilize the samurai society.

     Shinkaku-ji Temple might have been founded to mourn for those who died in the famine.

     The precincts have Takasai Shrine, namely Prime Minister Shrine.  Sometime in in the Northern and Southern Courts Period (1336-1392), a noble man escaped from Kyoto and settled down in Goshomizu, Hachioji.  Goshomizu literally means Palace Water.

     Some say the refugee was Madenokoji Nobufusa (1258-?1348), who became a kind of a Supreme Court Judge under the Kenmu Restoration (1333-1336) after the collapse of the Kamakura Shogunate. However, he carried the whole discontent with the restoration on his shoulder, and resigned.  After the collapse of the Kenmu Regime, he didn’t go to Mt. Yoshino with Emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339) and his grandchildren stayed in Kyoto.  His whereabouts became unknown.  His great grandson held a 99th anniversary ceremony on October 18, 1447.  Then, Nobufusa might have died in 1348.

     Nagayama Tadayosshi, who was the lord of Tsukui Castle from 1394 to 1428, revived the temple in 1411 and invited Priest Ryugen from Daigo-ji Temple in Kyoto. 

Address: 5 Chome-36-10 Sandamachi, Hachioji, Tokyo 193-0832

Phone: 042-661-5921