Virtual Buso 48 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Daisen-ji Temple

 

     Oyamada Arishige’s 5th son, Yukishige, founded Kosho-ji Temple in 1227 to pray for the comfort of the late Arishige in the other world.

Who was Oyamada Arishige?

     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 2 elder osns, Shigenari and Shigetomo were assassinated on June 23, 1205, and Yukishige alone seemed to survive till the foundation of Kosho-ji Temple.

     Yukishige moved to Kai Province, and one of his offsprings, Nobuzumi, married his daughter to Takeda Nobumitsu (?-1417), the Provincial Guardian Samurai.

     When Uesugi Ujinori (?-1417), the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate, rebelled against Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), the 4th Kanto Deputy Shogun, in 1416, Nobumitsu fought for Ujinori, the loser, and killed himself near Mt. Tokusa, Tsuru County, Kai Province.  Nobumitsu’s sister, who was married to Ujinori, killed herself on a certain riverside.  Nobumitsu’s eldest son, Nobushige (1386-1450), who was a grandson of Oyamada Nobuzumi, was staying in Kyoto at the time and survived.  More than 2 decades later, Nobushige finally returned to Kai ProvinceIn 1438.  He, however, was assassinated in 1450.

     Nobumitsu's second son, Nobunaga (?-1477), was with his father but survived.  He led guerrilla fighting in Kai Province against the Kanto Deputy Shogunate and their followers in the province.  After the return of Nobushige, however, he felt uncomfortable and fought for the Koga Kanto Deputy Shogunate in the southern half of the Kanto Region.

     Nobumitsu's third son, Nobuyasu, and fourth son, Nobukage (?-1477), became local samurai in Kai Province and survived.  It is unknown what happened to their mother and their grandfather, Oyamada Nobuzumi.

     Priest Etetsu (1350-1430) moved Kosho-ji Temple to the site of Arishige’s residence, and renamed it Daisen-ji after Arishige’s posthumous Buddhist name, Daisen.  Did Etetsu belong to the Oyamada Family and moved back to Oyamada Village to revive the temple?  What did he have in his mind?

     Tanaka Tomokiyo (1783-1847) was the 2nd son of a high-class farmer in Oyamada Village.  He moved to Edo in 1801 and studied Japanese philology and philosophy.  In 1803, he was adopted by the Takada’s, a wealthy merchant.  After his retirement in 1825, he called himself Oyamada.  One of his pupils, Chiba Tatetane, wrote about why Tomokiyo called himself Oyamada, and mentioned the history of the temple in 1828.

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