Kakuta Haruo---Decoding Japan---: Osaka 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in My Order (4)

Before the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868, the #32 and #33 deities of the Osaka 33 Kannon Pilgrimage used to be enshrined in Namba and Goryo Shrines respectively. Although I have visited #32 Zenryu-ji and #33 Saisho-ji Temples already, they didn't have stone monuments to tell their membership of the Osaka 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. Guessing the 2 shirines might have the monuments, I walked out of Shinsaibashi Station along the Osaka Metro Midosuji Line. I strolled along Midosuji Street north for a couple of blocks, and found Namba Shrine on my left. I have driven along the street countless times, noticing the shrine, but this was my first visit to it. There it was. The stone monument was in front of the shrine gate. The precincts were surprisingly quiet despite its being along one of the busiest streets in Osaka.

#32 Namba Shrine

The main deity is Emperor Osazaki, who is speculated to have reigned at the turn of the 5th century. He relocated the capital to Namba, and built the Kozu Palace. It was the first capital outside Yamato Orovince. He was known for exempting farmers from taxes for 3 years and for his lechery. The shrine was founded in Today's Matsubara City first when his 3rd son, Emperor Mitsuhawake reigned. It was moved to today's Uehonmachi, Tennoji Ward, Osaka, in 943. It was moved again to its present place by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1597.

The shrine used to enshrine a thousand-armed Sahasrabhuja statue. Although it is unknown when the statue was enshrined in the shrine, that could have been after the 9th century, when it came to be gradually believed that Indian Budhhist deities had appeared as native gods in Japan to be more easily accepted by the Japanese people. The donor might have considered Sahasrabhuja to be a suitable Indian Budhhist deity for Osazaki, who tried to relieve farmers, as Sahasrabhuja came to have 1,000 arms to relieve people. The statue was moved to Zenryu-ji Temple presumably after the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868.

I stepped out of Namba Shrine west from its back gate. I walked through checkered streets, turning corners at random. At the corner of Naniwasuji Street and Utsubo Park, I found Kusunaga Shrine, which is located just across the plaza from the Utsubo Tennis Center Court, which I have visited several times, without noticing the shrine. Or in one eye and out of the other?

Kusunaga Shrine

After the Tsubura Shrine, or today's Goryo Shrine, moved to its present place, there was no shrine. Later, the Seafood Market in Kitahama was moved. They dug the Kaifu Canal and built the Eitai Port around where there had been Tsubura Shrine. As dealers of salted and dried fish lived around there, it might have been they who renamed the area Utsubo, a moray eel. There already were 2 camphor trees in those days, which are now holy trees of Kusunaga Shrine. In December, 1928, when they were repairing the stone walls along the canal, a white snake came out of the root of the trees. Japanese people used to regard white snakes as messengers of gods, and the locals built a small shrine for the snake. As there were camphor (Kusu in Japanese) trees and Eitai Port (Ei is pronounced Naga in the native Japanese style reading of the kanji), the shrine was named Kusunaga. It is unknown whether the white snake still resides there or not.

After Kusunaga Shrine, I rambled through Utsubo Park. I found its old center court remodeled into a garden which utilizes its stands as a slope to run a stream. I thought I saw Goryo Shrine, but I didn't know where its main gate was. This time, I entered through its back gate, which was no more than a kitchen door.

#33 Goryo Shrine

Emperors of Japan have celebrated a harvest ritual annually presumably since the 10th to the 3rd Centuries BC. Empress Takara (594-661) is said to have fixed the ritual procedure. Emperor Oama (?-686) performed a special large-scale ceremonial offering of rice as a part of his enthronement ceremony in 673. Since then, newly enthroned Emperors have performed special ceremonial offerings of rice. Emperor Montoku (827-858) first performed the Yasoshima Ceremony one year after his enthronement in 850 at the Tsubura Inlet along today's Osaka Bay. The inlet is supposed to have been located near today's Utsubo Kusunaga Shrine (Address: 2 Chome-1 Utsubohonmachi, Nishi Ward, Osaka, 550-0004). The ceremony site was called Tsubura Shinshi, literally Tsubura God Small-Shrine. As the ceremony was repeatedly performed by newly enthroned Emperors, the site came to be called Tsubura Shrine, and the area came to be called Tsumura.

Kamei Korenori (1557-1612) was born in Yatsuka County, Izumo Province, as a son of a vassal of the Amako Clan, which was destroyed by Mori Motonari (1497-1571) in 1566. He met the remnants of the Amako Clan in Kyoto in 1568. In 1573, he actually joined fighting for the remnant. When Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) started attacking the Mori Clan, the remnants became subject to Nobunaga, and Korenori fought for Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582), a vassal of Nobunaga, in Tamba Province. For some reason, he was posted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), another vassal of Nobunaga, in 1581. When Korenari was fighting for Hideyoshi in Inaba Province, all of a sudden, Mitsuhide killed Nobunaga in 1582. Mitsuhide, however, was killed by Hideyoshi soon after. Luckily, Korenori survived. In 1594, Korenori invited Tsubura Shrine to part of his residence, which was located in the present place of Goryo Shrine. As he respected Kamakura Kagemasa (1069-?), he enshrined Kagemasa in New Tsubura Shrine as a god. Kagemasa answered Korenori's faith. After Hideyoshi's death, Korenori transferred to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616). He successfully survived the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and the Siege of Osaka in 1614 and 1615. He became the first lord of the Shikano Domain in Inaba Province, which was just east of Izumo Province. He made a glorious return to his hometown.

Osaka people were surprised with Korenori's success or Kagemasa's grace, and they commonly called Tsubura Shrine Goro-no-miya Shrine in the Edo Period as Kagemasa's nickname was Gongoro. Hojo-ji Temple was built in the southern part of its precincts as its shrine temple, with an eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue as its main deity. The shrine officially changed its name to Goryo Shrine in the 1660's. After the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order was issued by the Meiji Restoration Government in 1868, the Goryo Shrine and Hojo-in Temple were divided. The temple was abolished later, and the Ekadasamukha statue was moved to Saisho-ji Temple. The precincts of the temple became a modern building with a shrine gate in front of it as a trace of the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism.

#32 Namba Shrine

Address: 4 Chome-1-3 Bakuromachi, Chuo Ward, Osaka, 541-0059

Phone: 06-6251-8000