Virtual Shimousa 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Seiryu-in Temple

     It is unknown when Seiryu-in Temple was founded.  The precincts have graves of the Watanuki Family, who managed the Kogane Stock Farms for the Tokugawa Shogunate.  The farms raised horses for military use.  They caught half-wild horses, chose good ones, and sent them to Edo.

     The history of the stock farms dates back to the turn of the 8th century.

     Just to the north of Shimousa Province, there used to lie an orifice of a big inland sea, the Katori Sea.  On the peninsula between the Katori Sea and the Pacific Ocean, there stood Kashima Shrine.  On the southern coast of the Katori Sea, there stood Katori Shrine.

     Kashima Shrine was officially considered and actually worked as the gateway to invade the Pacific side of the northeastern part of Japan, which was later called Mutsu Province.  The area was not uninhabited at all and they had to subdue and rule Emishi, who were not subject to the Imperial central government yet.  Stock farms in Shimousa Province provided military horses for the Imperial Army dispatched to the north.

     The farms were closed in 1869 by the Meiji Restoration Government to develop them as rice fields. 

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