Virtual Old Kasai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #14 Kansho-ji Temple

 

     Kansho-ji Temple was founded in 1491 as a shrine temple of Shirahige Shrine, but was abolished in 1869, one year after the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order was issued by the Meiji Restoration Government in 1868.

     The Kyotoku War lasted for 28 years from 1454 to 1482.  During the war, Ashikaga Shigeuji (1438-1497), the Kanto Deputy Shogun in Kamakura, relinquished Kamakura and moved to Koga in 1457.  In 1458, the Central Shogunate in Muromachi, Kyoto, sent out another deputy shogun, Ashikaga Masatomo (1435-1491), from Kyoto to Kamakura, but he couldn’t enter Kamakura, obstructed by some powerful Kanto samurai, and stayed in Horikoshi, Izu Province.  From then on, there were a Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun and a Horikoshi Kanto Deputy Shogun in the Kanto Region.  Masatomo was struck down by disease in January, 1491, and died on April 3rd.  His first son, Chachamaru was confined to a basement by his stepmother.  On July 1st, however, he escaped and killed the stepmother and her second son, Jundoji.  He became a self-proclaimed Horikoshi Kanto Depury Shogun.  Luckily, the stepmother's first son, Yoshizumi (1481-1511), had moved to Kyoto in June, 1487, and became a monk.  Unluckily for Chachamaru, in April, 1493, the Meio Incident broke out in Kyoto, and the 10th Central Shogun was dethroned by Hosokawa Masamoto (1466-1507), who put Yoshizumi forward as shogun.  Yoshizumi was treated as an adopted son of the 8th shogun, Yoshimasa (1436-1490), who was an elder brother of Masatomo, and became the 11th shogun in 1494.  Chachamaru became a murder of the shogun's mother.  In 1493, he was attacked by Ise Shinkuro (?-1519), who wanted to become a warring-states-period hero, was caught in Fukane Castle, Izu Province, in August, 1498, and killed himself before he got an adult name.  As you may guess, both Chachamaru and Jundoji were childhood names.  It wasn't recorded how old they were, but Yoshizumi was 10 years old in 1491.  If Chachamaru had been 3 years older than him, he killed his stepmother and his brother-in-law at the age of 13, in the middle of his puberty.  If Jundoji had been 3 years younger than Yoshizumi, he was killed at the age of 7 by his brother-in-law, who had lived in the same house with him for 7 years.

     Shirahige Shrine is said to secretly enshrines a penis-like natural stone.  Natural stones which looked like genitals of either sex were holy objects in Japan since its primitive age.  The precincts must have been a holy place since prehistoric times.  However, in such days when rebellious stages were caught in political fights, the locals of the shrine might have wanted a more elaborate religion and founded Kansho-ji Temple.

Shirahige Shrine (Marodo Gongen)

Address: 4 Chome-36 Higashiyotsugi, Katsushika City, Tokyo 124-0014

Phone: 03-3692-0753