Virtual Buso 48 Kannon Pilgrimage #17 Senryu-ji Temple

 

     Hojo Takatoki (1304-1333) was the last Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate.

     On May 7, 1333, Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) went over to Emperor Go-Daigo and captured the Kyoto Office of the Kamakura Shogunate.  On the 8th in the same month, Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338) took up arms in Kozuke Province and advanced to Kamakura.  His army reached Kamakura on May 18, and broke into the samurai capital on the 22nd.  Takatoki retreated to Tosho-ji Temple and killed himself in a cave there.  His vassals, Ogi Miyauchi and Abe Sanzaemon, brought his personal guardian Siddhattha sitting statue to Tsuruma Village, Koza County, Sagami Province.  They built a hermitage, enshrined the statue in it, and named it  Saiko-an, namely West Ray Hermitage.

     In 1558, Eiroku Great Famine started and that caused Monk Hakushu (?-1560) to live in the hermitage.  In 1583, Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590) became a practical ruler of the Kanto Region.  Priest Tozui (?-1586) changed it to a temple and renamed it Senryu-ji.  Tozui died 4 years before the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan.  The Siddhattha statue has witnessed the ends of rulers.

     The precincts have the oldest grave in Sagamihara City that is dated 1449, when Ashikaga Shigeuji (1438-1497) became the 5th Kanto Deputy Shogun.

     Ashikaga Harutora was born on June 13, 1394.  At the age of 9, he entered Seiren-in Temple, on June 21, 1403.  On March 4, 1408, he became a priest, and was named Gien.  Ashikaga Yoshikazu (1407-1425) and Yoshimochi (1386-1428) died of a disease one after the other, and the shogunate became vacant.  Chief vassals assembled at Iwashimizu-Hachiman-gu Shrine and decided the next shogun by lot on January 17, 1428.  Gien became the sixth shogun, Yoshinori (1394-1441), who assassinated his political opponents one by one.

     Yoshinori cornered Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), the 4th Kanto Deputy Shogun, into suicide.  Yuki Ujitomo (1402-1441) sheltered Mochiuji’s 2 sons, Shun'o-maru and Yasuo-maru, in his castle, and rebelled against Yoshinori in March, 1440.  On July 29, Yuki Castle was surrounded by the overwhelming strength of the shogunate army.  The outcome was self-evident from the very beginning.  Yet, the Yuki Family held the castle for nearly a year.  On April 16, 1441, the castle finally fell.  Ujitomo and his son were killed in fighting.  Shun'o-maru and Yasuo-maru were arrested and were to be transferred to Kyoto.  On their way, at Tarui, Mino Province, however, they were killed and left their death poems:

“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)

Mochiuji’s youngest son, Eiju-maru, survived, became the 5th Kanto Deputy Shogun, and was given an adult name Shigeuji.

     The person who was buried under the grave witnessed all the chaos and tragedies.

Address: 8 Chome 54-21, Kamitsurumahoncho, Minami Ward, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 52-0318

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