Virtual Musashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #14 Joraku-ji Temple

     Joraku-ji Temple was founded by Monk Yusen (?-1638), who was a brother of Kato Takumi, whose offspring became the head of Togasaki Village.

     Kato Takumi (?-1625), who became the head of Togasaki Village in 1590's, organized master-less job-less samurai to develop the area.  When Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) visited the area in 1606 to practice falconry, Takumi served meals.  Although he was a farmer, Takumi was allowed to use his surname and wear a sword.  Ina Tadatsugu (1550-1610) exempted Takumi from paying taxes for 10 acres of fields. 

     Ina Tadatsugu (1550-1610) was born to Tadaie (1528-1607), the lord of Ojima Castle, Hazu County, Mikawa Province.  In 1563, Tadaie took part in the revolt organized by the True Pure Land Buddhism and fought against Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Battle of Azukizaka in 1564.  The revolt was defeated, and Tadaie left Ieyasu with his family.  In 1575, when Ieyasu fought the Battle of Nagashino with Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) against Takeda Katsuyori (1546-1582), Tadaie and Tadatsugu rushed to help Ieyasu in the decisive battle.  After the battle they worked and fought for Ieyasu's son, Nobuyasu (1559-1579).  However, Nobunaga suspected Nobuyasu of having secret communication with Katsuyori, and forced Nobuyasu to commit suicide by the sword on September, 15th, 1579.  Tadaie and Tadatsugu left Mikawa Province and lived in Sakai, Izumi Province, counting on Tadaie's elder brother, Sadakichi, who had left Mikawa Province soon after the Battle of Azukizaka and who had quitted being a samurai.

     Nobunaga, however, was killed in Honno-ji Temple by his vassal, Akechi Mitsuhide (1516-1582), on June 2nd, 1582, unluckily for Ieyasu, who was going sightseeing in Sakai and who ran about in confusion trying to get away from Sakai to Mikawa Province.  Tadatsugu helped Ieyasu escape through Yamato, Iga, and Ise Provinces to Mikawa Province, crossing the Ise Bay, instead of directly sailing back to Mikawa, which had a possibility of being attacked by pirates off Kumano.

     After they returned to Mikawa Province, Tadaie worked and fought for Nobunaga's second son, Nobuo (1558-1630), and Tadatsugu for Ieyasu.  After Nobuo was sent into banishment, Tadaie depended on Tadatsugu.  Tadatsugu, in wartime, operated sending military provisions and maintaining their routes for large armies.  After Ieyasu moved to the Kanto Region in 1590, Tadatsugu managed river improvements, farm development, and land surveys.  The river improvements included changing the waterways of the Old Tone and Ara Rivers.  The Bizen Flumes and Bizen Levees in the Kanto Region were named after his post name.  He also taught farmers how to grow mulberry trees, hemp, and paper mulberries, and encouraged them in charcoal making, silk producing, and salt manufacturing.  Ina in Adachi County, Musashi Province, was named so after him.

     In 1601, Tadatsugu’s son, Tadaharu (1606-1653) ordered Mitsugon-in Temple to pray for the success of developing rice fields in the area.  To save Edo from floods, Tadaharu first dammed up the Aino River, a bypass river of the Old Tone River, in 1594, to keep the water of the Old Tone River away from Edo.  In 1621, he finished digging a canal to make the Old Tone River flow into the Old Watarase River for the same purpose, and the lower stream of the Old Tone River became the Sumida River.  He also started separating the Kinu and Kobai Rivers in their middle streams.  In 1629, he dammed the Ara River and made its water flow into the Iruma River.  The New Kinu River started running in the same year.  In 1630, the New Kobai River started running.  In 1635, he started building the  Edo River to make it the main stream in the estuary of the Ara, Old Tone, and Old Watarase Rivers, and finished it in 1641.  Do you follow what I have said?  I wonder how many people understood his ultimate end in those days.  Finally in 1654, 1 year after his death, the New Tone River ran east directly to the Pacific Ocean.  As the construction progressed, he developed rice fields in the estuary of the Ara, Old Tone, and Old Watarase Rivers, Katsushika County in short.  Later, part of the area even became the downtown of Edo.

     Joraku-ji Temple's precincts have a Kannon-do Hall which enshrines a statue of thousand-armed Sahasrabhuja.

     Tradition says the statue was made by Jocho (?-1057), who was a Japanese sculptor of the Heian Period (794-1185).  He established the technique of sculpting a single Buddhist image out of many pieces of wood.

Address: 2201 Togasaki, Misato, Saitama 341-0044

Phone: 048-955-0015