Virtual Aduma 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Kannon-ji Temple

 

     Kannon-ji Temple was founded in the 17th year of Shohei, in 1362, by Yoken.  Shohei was used by the Southern Court, so Yoken could have supported or belonged to the Southern Court.  In Shimousa Province, Chiba Tanesada (1288-1336) belonged to the Northern Court, while Chiba Sadatane (1292-1351) belonged to the Southern Court.  They, of course, fought against each other.  In October, Sadatane tried to fight for the Southern Court in Echizen Province, but lost his way in snow and surrendered to the Northern Court.  On November 19th, Tanesada died suddenly, and Sadatane took an opportunity to go over to the Northern Court.  He was appointed as the guardian samurai of Shimousa Province by the Northern Court or by the Muromachi Shogunate.

     Tanesada's sons, Takatane and Tanehira (?-1335), were both killed in battle.  Sadatane's first son, Kazutane (?-1336), was also killed in battle, and his second son, Ujitane (1337-1365), succeeded to the guardian samurai.  In 1352, Nitta Yoshimune (1331-1368) organized the samurai who belonged to the Southern Court.  They occupied Kamakura once, but were suppressed by the Northern Court Army soon.  Thereafter, no organized military campaign was performed by the Southern Court samurai in the Kanto Region.  10 years later, a samurai retired and became a monk with his Buddhist name Yoken.

     When the Satomi Clan was building up its hegemony in Awa Province, the Kanto region at large was plunging into another epoch under the Muromachi Shogunate.  The Kanto Deputy Shogun used to be based at Kamakura.  The fourth Kanto Deputy Shogun, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), turned against the central shogunate in Kyoto in 1423.  He was defeated, and his son, Shigeuji (1434-1497), was stationed at Koga in Shimousa Province.  The central shogunate sent Ashikaga Masatomo (1435-1491) to Kanto, appointing him as a new deputy shogun in Kanto, but he couldn’t enter Kamakura, obstructed by some powerful Kanto samurai, and was stationed at Horigoe in Izu Province.  That is, the Kanto deputy shogunate was divided into 2.

     In 1517, when Ashikaga Takamoto (?-1535) was Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun, his younger brother, Yoshiaki (1493?-1538), turned against Takamoto, and was stationed at Oyumi in Shimousa Province.  That is, the Kanto deputy shogunate was divided into 3.  Meanwhile, the Uesugi Clan, which was hereditary for the butler-ship of the Kanto Deputy Shogun, was keeping its own authority.  In short, Kanto turned into a mess.  To make the matters worse, Ise Shinkuro (1432-1519) came from Kyoto to become a warring-states-period hero, and joined in the mess.

     In 1523, Ise Ujitsuna (1487-1541), the son of Shinkuro, changed his surname to Hojo (known as Later Hojo).  In 1532, as Ujitsuna was joining forces with Ashikaga Takamoto, the Kanto Deputy Shogun in Koga, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the Kanto Deputy Shogun in Oyumi, was becoming the only choice for Satomi Yoshitoyo (?-1534) to face the Later Hojo Clan together.  In 1534, however, or as a result, Satomi Yoshitaka (1507?-1574), Yoshitoyo’s cousin, launched a coup d’etat against Yoshitoyo with the help of Ujitsuna.

    However, Yoshitaka was always under the pressure of Oyumi Kanto Deputy Shogun, and went over to Yoshiaki’s side.  In 1538, the Oyumi and Koga Kanto Deputy Shoguns clashed against each other in Konodai. Yoshiaki was killed in the battle, and Koga’s side won.  The biggest winner in the battle was Hojo Ujitsuna.  He made Takamoto his puppet, and grabbed hegemony over all of the southern part of Kanto but Awa Province.  The minor second winner of the battle was, ironically enough, Yoshitaka, who belonged to the loser’s side.  He could secure Awa Province at least, and could get rid of the Oyumi Kanto Deputy Shogun, who had been a pain in his neck.  In the aftermath of the battle, the Later Hojo Clan and the Satomi Clan were to fight against each other head-to-head.

    After Ashikaga Yoshiaki and his first son, Yoshizumi (?-1538), were killed in the battle, his younger children fled to Awa Province, counting on the protection of Satomi Yoshitaka.  It was during those days that Yoshitaka’s first son, Yoshihiro (1530-1578), and Ashikaga Yoshiaki’s first daughter met.  Later, however, Yoshiaki's second and third sons were sent to Sekido-ji Temple in Kazusa Province and his 3 daughters were sent to Taihei-ji Temple in Kamakura.  They became under the patronage, or the supervision, of the Later Hojo Clan.

     At the age of 8 or 9, Satomi Yoshihiro was determined.

     After coming of age, Yoshihiro kept fighting fiercely and aggressively against the Later Hojo Clan.  He continued fighting for some 18 years. Finally, in 1556, he succeeded in intruding into Kamakura temporarily. He saw Ashikaga Yoshiaki’s first daughter, who was Nun Shogaku (?-1576?) at the time.  She had been determined too.  With her noble bloodline as a young lady of the Ashikaga Shogunate Clan, she could have been married to a son of a powerful family as her younger sister did.  The younger sister got married to Uesugi Norihiro (?-1551), the Butler or Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogun.  Instead, Shogaku became a nun at Taihei-ji Temple, and had stayed there nearly 2 decades.  Yoshihiro was 26 years old at the time.  She might have been older than him.  Yoshihiro asked Nun Shogaku to come back to Awa Province, and she accepted his proposal.  Hojo Ujiyasu (1515-1571), the head of the Later Hojo Clan, criticized their attempt as “incomprehensible” but all he could do was destroy Taihei-ji Temple.

     Yoshihiro married her as his lawful wife.  You might wonder why his samurai supported his romantic but rather selfish motivation.  He gained the largest territory for them.  In one of those battles, Yoshihiro's favorite horse, Ranryu, was killed.  Kannon-ji Temple was revived in 1573, and its precincts have Ranryu's grave.

Address: 2 Chome-13-16 Ichikawa, Chiba 272-0034

Phone: 047-322-1021