Virtual Ueno Oji Komagome 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Joraku-in Temple

     Joraku-in Temple was said to have been founded by Gyoki (668-749) sometime between 749 and 757 near the Shinobazunoike Pond, and was revived by Ennin (794-864).  As Gyoki died in Yamato Province in 749, Gyoki's part of the story must have been invented later.

     During the Edo Period, the temple used to be called Chofukuju-ji.

     After the Second World War, it moved to its present place, where there was Renso-ji Temple, merged Renso-ji, and changed its name to Joraku-in.  In the Edo Period, the scene around Joraku-ji Temple resembled that of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Choho-ji Temple, which was also known as Rokkakudo (the Hexagonal Hall) or Ikenobo (the temple by a pond, in which Prince Shotoku was said to have washed himself clean).  Joraku-in might have had either a hexagonal hall or a pond, which is unknowable today.  

     Joraku-in Temple enshrines the statue of Cintamanicakra, who usually has 6 arms and holds chintamani (a wish-fulfilling jewel) in one of the six.  The statue was said to be the copy of that of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Choho-ji Temple, whose Cintamanicakra statue was said to have been washed ashore at Iwaya, Awaji Province.  Prince Shotoku made it his own personal guardian Buddhist image.  After he overthrew Mononobe Moriya in 587, Shotoku enshrined the statue in Choho-ji Temple.  Scientifically speaking, the temple was founded after the 10th century though.

     Fujiwara Masashige was a manager of the Adachi Manor.  He didn't have a child and prayed to Kumano God for one.  One night, he had a holy dream and had a girl, Adachihime.  She was married to Toshima Kiyomoto, who was the ruler of Toshima County.  Kiyomoto had 3 sons, Aritsune, Kiyoyasu, and Kiyoshige (1161-1238), who later called himself Kasai Kiyoshige and who became a samurai manager of Mutsu Province under the Kamakura Shogunate.

     Kiyoshige was given birth by Chichibu Shigehiro's daughter.  Aritsune and Kiyoyasu's mother was unrecorded.  Shigehiro seemed to be shrewd.  His sons started the Hatakeyama and Oyamada Families, and his daughter was married to Chiba Tsunetane (1118-1201).  The Hatakeyama, Oyamada, and Chiba Families were all important and significant samurai under the Kamakura Shogunate.

     Adachihime's relationship with her parents-in-law, Yasuie and his wife, became strained.  It is unknown whether the Toshima Family or the Chichibu Family took the lead, but the Toshima Family dumped a daughter of their subordinate and replaced her with that of the powerful family.

     Adachihime threw herself into the Ara River on her way back to her parents' home with her maids.

Masashige had no guts to fight against his superior, became a monk, and visited sacred places in other provinces.  When he visited Kumano, he had a holy dream and found a radiating tree.  He wrote his name on it and floated it in the sea.  When he came back to Adachi, he found the tree washed ashore there.  He followed the holy dream and waited for Gyoki (668-749) to come.  Gyoki came and heard the whole story from Masashige.  Gyoki went on a fast, and carved 6 statues of Amitabha out of the tree and enshrined them in 6 villages nearby.  Joraku-in Temple was one of the six.

     Wait, wait, wait!  Something is inconsistent.  How can Gyoki and others live in the same period?  Scientifically speaking, the statues are supposed to have been carved at the end of the Heian Period, so Gyoki's part of the story was made up later in the latter half of the Edo Period, when Adachihime's story became popular.

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