Virtual Buso 48 Kannon Pilgrimage #9 Shoren-ji Temple

     Minamoto Yoriyoshi (988-1075) presented the clan’s statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of other 6 metamorphoses, to Shin-Jihi-ji Temple and revived the temple presumably either on his way to or back from Mutsu Province to fight the Former Nine Years’ War (1051-1062).

     Shin-Jihi-ji Temple declined again.  The wife of Okuba Tadamasu (1656-1713), the lord of Odawara Domain, presented an11-faced Ekadasamukha statue to the temple and revived it as Shoren-ji Temple in the first half of the 18th century to commemorate Tokugawa Nobuyasu (1559-1579), who had been forced to kill himself by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) and who was the first son of Ieyasu.  It is unknown why she did it almost a century after Nobuyasu’s death.  Ieyasu’s first daughter was Prince Kame-hime (1560-1625), who survived and was married to Okudaira Nobumasa (1555-1615), whose last son was Tadaaki (1583-1644), who was given the surname Matsudaira from Ieyasu.  Tadaaki’s first son was Tadahiro (1631-1700), whose third daughter became the wife of Okuba Tadamasu.  Was she a history nerd?

     Shoren-ji Temple was abolished after the Meiji Restoration.  The site became Keio Mogusa Garden, and only a hall for Avalokitesvara statues was left at the foot of the garden.  The restaurant in the garden is named Shoren-an.  There must be another history nerd in the Keio Railway Corporation.

Address: 849-1 Mogusa, Hino, Tokyo 191-0033