Virtual Buso 48 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Zuiryu-in Temple

     Nagatsuka-ji Temple was founded in 1324, when the Kamakura Shogunate was threatened with the outside pressure from the Mongol Empire in the Asian Continent.  Some of the Ando Pirates found trading with the empire more profitable.  The Ando Pirates were based in Tosa Port, which flourished from the beginning of the 13th century to the middle of the 15th century, at the northernmost tip of Honshu Island.  To understand who were the Ando Pirates, we should see first what marine transport like in the Sea of Japan till the 12th Century.

     In 746, over 1,100 Balhae and Tiei people arrived in Ideha Province along the seacoast of the Sea of Japan in the Northeastern part of Honshu Island.  The number implied it was rather a big migration than to be just envoys.  After getting some clothes and food as they might have expected, they were deported.

     They left Ideha Province.  But to where?  They might have continued to sail north.  First, they might have invaded the estuary of Yoneshiro River, outnumbered the local Emishi people, and occupied Nushiro Port.  Then, some of them might have continued to sail further north, reached the estuary of Iwaki River, outnumbered the local Emishi people, and occupied or built Tosa Port there.  Their experience and knowledge enabled Tosa Port to flourish from the beginning of the 13th century to the middle of the 15th century.  With the knowledge of navigation, it might have been Balhae and Tiei people who also built 2 ports to wait for better winds.  One was in Onga between Akita and Nushiro, and the other was in Fukaura between Nushiro and Tosa.  Those ports made the navigation across the Sea of Japan safer and more secure.

     The 12th century witnessed the rise and fall of the Taira Clan in Japan.  In the first half of the century, Taira Tadamori (1096-1153) gave a major drive to the rise of the clan.  In the latter half, Taira Kiyomori (1118-1181) promoted the golden age of the clan.  The rise of the clan also meant the rise of the trade between Japan and the continent.  After the death of Kiyomori, the clan collapsed rapidly, but the trade didn’t.  The Minamoto Clan, who overtook the Taira Clan, succeeded the trade.

     The trade between Japan and China across the East China Sea was a major route of the trade, but the trade between Japan and Balhae across the Sea of Japan worked as a significant bypass route of the trade.  The Taira Clan improved the Seto Inland Sea route by installing a new waterway with a new canal and by constructing a new port etc.  The clan also looked north.  Taira Shigemori (1137-1179), Kiyomori’s son, is said to have planned to dig a canal between Shiozu Port at the northernmost tip of Lake Biwa in Omi Province and Tsuruga Port in Echizen Province along the Sea of Japan in 1150.  They start digging at the place where there is Fukasaka Jizo today.  Too many rocks blocked their way, and the jizo statue is said to have been carved out from one of the rocks they excavated.

     Nichiren (1222-1282), a Buddhism priest, wrote an autobiography in 1276 on his behaviors from 1268 to 1275.  In the autobiography, he mentioned Ando Goro, a legendary founder of the Ando Pirates.  According to Nichiren’s narration, Goro was beheaded by Ezo.  His narration sounded that the case was widely known among the readers.

     Who were Ezo?  And what were happening in the region to the north of Japan, including today’s Hokkaido?

     Archaeologically speaking, the Satsumon Culture spread in the northern part of Honshu Island, the southern part of Hokkaido Island, and Sakhalin.  The Okhotsk Culture spread from the Amur River region to Sakhalin, northern Hokkaido Island and other lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk.  The two cultures were coexisting, maybe in peace or maybe in rivalry.  It was at that time that the iron culture started spreading northward from Honshu Island.  The spread of the iron culture meant the spread of iron arms.  And it was at that time that the Mongol Empire was invading the Amur River basin.  The empire had, as a matter of course, the most advanced weapons at the time.  Peoples with iron culture and the empire were competing against each other for natural resources in the Amur River basin:  mainly hides and fur of Amur tigers and Amur leopards and probably feathers of hawks and eagles.

     In 1263, the Mongol Empire took control of the lower reaches of the Amur River, subjugating the Jurchen and other peoples. The empire encountered the iron-culture people in Sakhalin a year later, in 1264.  In 1265, the iron-culture peoples attacked and killed some local people who had allied with the empire.  The two were to clash against each other in Sakhalin.  The empire sent out an expedition to Sakhalin to subjugate the iron-culture peoples in1273, but they failed to make it across the strait.  In 1284, waiting for the strait freezing over, the empire crossed the strait in the winter.  In 1285, the empire deployed a troop strength of 10,000 and attacked the iron-culture people.  In 1286, the empire deployed 10,000 soldiers and 1,000 ships and overwhelmed the iron-culture people.  They reached the southernmost tip of Sakhalin, and built a castle there.  Although they were once defeated, the iron-culture peoples kept trying to advance into the Amur River basin on the continent in 1296, 1297, and 1305.  In 1297, they crossed the sea into the lower reaches of the Amur River, and tried to abduct hawk hunters.  As hawk and eagle feathers used to be typical exports from north to Japan, they were trying to gain control over exporting the feathers.  They finally became obedient to the empire by paying tribute of hides and fur to the empire.  Paying tribute also meant a kind of barter trading for them.

     Who were iron-culture peoples?  They might have been those who belonged to the Satsumon Culture, the Okhotsk Culture, and probably Japanese, more specifically the Ando Pirates, which might have been formed by the mixture of Balhae, Tiei, Emishi, Ainu, and Japanese people.  Then, what happened around the iron-culture peoples?

     In 1305, the Kagen Rebellion, or the Rebellion of Hojo Munekata (1278-1305), broke out at Kamakura, the samurai capital in Japan.  It was armed infighting within the Hojo Clan, who were actual rulers of the Kamakura Shogunate.  It ceased within 3 months, but shook the foundation of the clan’s authority and power.  The iron-culture peoples in northern Honshu and Hokkaido might have found the Mongol Empire to be better trading partner.

     If the Ando Pirates were trading bear hides, they were trading with the people in Hokkaido, and Ando Goro might have been killed by the people there.  If they were trading tiger and leopard hides, they were trading with some people in the continent, and Goro might have been killed by Mongolians.

     In 1308, when the iron-culture people and the Mongolian Empire compromised with each other, Prince Moriyoshi was born in Japan, who would be later one of the major leaders to end the Kamakura Shogunate.

     In 1263, Kubilai Khan, the fifth ruler of the Mongol Empire, took control of the lower reaches of the Amur River, subjugating the Jurchen and Nanai peoples as well as the Nivkh, who dwelt near the mouth of the Amur and across the strait on Sakhalin. According to the Yuan Shi, the official history of the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty China, Kubilai’s army conquered the Kugi people of Sakhalin a year later, in 1264. The history claims that the Mongols attacked the Kugi when the Gilimi people, who had already submitted to the Mongol armies, complained that the Kugi had invaded their territory.  Kugi might have been either Ainu or Japanese.

     Gilimi was the Sinicized pronunciation of Gillemi, the name that the Nanai people of the lower Amur used to refer to the people who called themselves the Nivkh.  (The Russians who explored the region in the seventeenth century called them the Gilyak.)  Even today there are still approximately 4,500 Nivkh around the mouth of the Amur and in northern Sakhalin.

     Kugi was the Sinicized pronunciation of Kughi, the Nivkh name for the Ainu.  Among the Tungus peoples of the lower Amur, the name was pronounced Kuyi, a pronunciation that was borrowed into Chinese and written Kui during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).  Approximately 2,500 Ainu lived on southern Sakhalin during the second half of the Edo Period (1603–1868).  From 1905 to 1945, when southern Sakhalin was under Japanese control, the Ainu population was about 1,500.

     In the 1320’s, Ando Suenaga was based in Fukaura Port and his cousin, Ando Suehisa, was based in today’s Aomori City.  They were rivals within the Ando Pirates, and it was Suenaga, who controlled Tosa Port, and, accordingly, who was more interested in the direct trade with the Mongol Empire.  Suehisa, according to the geographical location of his stronghold, preferred the transit trade through Ainu or Kugi people.  To make the matter worse, the Hojo Clan appointed Suehisa local administrator in Ezo.  The rivalry became rebellion.

     It was recorded that Kudo Sadasuke, who was from Suruga Province, was dispatched in 1326 to suppress the revolt of the Ando Pirates.  He arrested Suenaga, but it didn’t solve any problem.  Utsunomiya Takasada, who was from Kozuke Province, and Oda Haruhisa (1300-1352), who was from Hitachi Province, were dispatched in 1327.  That solved no troubles again, and finally in 1328, "reconciliation between Suehisa and Suenaga" was reached.  The Hojo Clan was forced to admit that Hisanaga was ruling Fukaura and surrounding areas.  The Hojo Clan exposed their incompetence to handle the situation as the Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate.  In 1333, the shogunate collapsed as well as the regency.

Nagatsuka-ji Temple might have been founded either to mourn over the death of those who were dispatched to north or to relieve the anxiety over the end of their system.

     Priest Chosatsu (?-1632) renamed Nagatsuka-ji Zuiryu-in.

     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.  That was a business opportunity for Buddhist priests.  Chosatsu took full advantage of the opportunity and also founded Okura-ji, Hotai-ji, and Sosen-ji Temples.

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