Virtual Old Kasai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #1 Joju-ji Temple

 

     In 848, Ennin (794-864) built a hermitage and named it Jakko-in.  In 1314, Priest Shunkei changed it a temple and named it Joju-ji.

     In 1305, the Kagen Incident broke out.  On April 22nd, the residence of Hojo Sadatoki (1272-1311) was set fire.  He was the head of the mainline family of the Hojo Clan.  Next day, his 12 vassals killed Hojo Tokimura (1242-1305), a leader of other minor families of the clan.  11 out of the 12 were beheaded on May 2nd.  On May 4, Hojo Munakata (1278-1305), Sadatoki’s brother-in-low, was killed, framed for everything.

     Sadatoki’s doubts and fears might have caused, or at least worsened, the incident.  Losing his loyal vassals and blood brother as well to evade responsibility, Sadatoki got addicted to drinking.  The autocracy by the head of the mainline Hojo Clan began rapidly breaking down.  The Kamakura Shogunate was in decline in the 1310's, and was destroyed in 1333.

     Shunkei and his supporters might have wanted to ling to the mercy of Avalokitesvara.

     The temple used to be located at Nakanogo-Takecho, Honjo.  The 1293 Great Kanto Earthquake hit the area and destroyed every buildings there including the temple, which moved to its present place in 1927.

     The stone monument by the temple gate says the temple was the copy of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Kimii-dera Temple.

     Hayashi Morotori (1720-1790) built a stone monument to introduce a poem in Man'yoshu or the Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves (the oldest collection of Japanese poems compiled in the 8th century):

I'm cooking the Katsushika early-ripening rice to offer.

I have to keep myself pure and chaste

but how can I keep my love waiting outside?

     The Niodori Park in Nagareyama City, Chiba, has another monument to introduce the poem.

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