Virtual Aduma 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #28 Horin-ji Temple

 

     Horin-ji Temple was founded by Priest Daishu (?-1607).

     Its precincts have a Karaṇḍamudra Dharani Sutra pagoda, which is said to be the grave of Anzai Sanemoto, who was a vassal of Satomi Yoshihiro (1530-1578).

     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 4th 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 Kamakura, 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 Regent 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 Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the Oyumi Kanto Deputy Shogun, 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.

    Although Yoshitaka was helped by the Later Hojo Clan, 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 the Kanto Region 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 seized Sanuki Castle in Kazusa Province, and successfully intruded into Kamakura from the castle 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 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), Ujitsuna's son and 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.  Not bad for the Warring States Period.

     Yoshihiro invaded Kazusa Province, and then Shimousa Province.  At last, in 1564, he fought the Second Battle of Konodai against Hojo Tsunashige (1515-1587), but he lost.  After the defeat, Anzai Sanetomo flew, settled in the opposite bank of Konodai across Edo River, and developed Iyoda Village.  He changed his name to Shinohara Iyo.

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