Virtual Musashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #10 Jissho-in Temple

 

     It is unknown when Jissho-in Temple was founded, and it wasn't recorded when the temple was abolished.  In the former site of the temple, there is Hikoito Community Center, which enshrines the eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue Jissho-in Temple used to enshrine.

     Hikoito Village was located on a natural levee between the Naka and Edo Rivers.  The village had Nyotai Shrine, namely Female Body Shrine.  In Musashi Province alone, there used to be 34 Female Body Shrines.  Tradition says that Hikoito Village invited a goddess from the Peak Nyotai of Mt. Tsukuba.  Nyotai Shrines were distributed in the flood plain of the Old Tone and Old Watarase Rivers, from where they had a distant view of Mt. Tsukuba.  Yoshiyuki Ushiyama (1952- )points out that the shrines are distributed along the inland waterway between Edo Bay and the Northern Kanto Region, and that the distribution should have something to do with sailors' belief in a goddess.

     In the Misato area, there lived people as early as in the 2nd or 3rd century.  In the 5th and 6th centuries, the area became an interchange between marine  and inland water transportation.  Even today, the highest point of the city is just 8 meters above sea level, and the lowest 1.4 meters above sea level.

     The area uniquely has 9 place names which starts with Hiko: Hikokawato, Hikona, Hikoito, Hikoe, Hikone, Hikokura, Hikosawa, Hikonari, and Hikono.

     Takamure Itsue (1894-1964) argued that the society was divided into 2 some areas of Primitive Japan based on sex.  Its female group was managed and ruled by Hime, and its male group by Hiko.  The Misato area, however, didn't have place names which started with Hime.

     Some linguists point out that many place names with Hiko were distributed where there used to be natural levees.  Then, why did they use Sone in the Yoshikawa area, and why Hiko in the Misato area?  Probably, there were 2 different ethnic groups who settled in the area.

Hikoito Community Center

Address: 1 Chome-31 Hikoito, Misato, Saitama 341-0001