Virtual Musashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #15 Henjo-in Temple

 

     Wado-ji Temple was founded either in 708 or 710.  

     In Konodai in October, 1538, an Oyumi Kanto Deputy Shogun, who was supported by the Satomi Clan, and a Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun, who was supported by the Later Hojo Clan, clashed against each other. The Oyumi Kanto Deputy Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki (?-1538), was killed in battle, and Koga’s side won.  Yoshiaki's first son, Yoshizumi (?-1538), was also killed in battle, and Yoshiaki's younger children fled to Awa Province, counting on the protection of Satomi Yoshitaka (1507-1574).  However, the mastermind of the Koga Deputy Shogun, the Later Hojo Clan, was too powerful for the Satomi Can to shelter them.  Yoshiaki's second and third sons were sent to Sekido-ji Temple in Kazusa Province and his 3 daughters were sent to Taihei-ji Temple in Kamakura, Sagami Province.  They became under the patronage, or the supervision, of the Later Hojo Clan.

     After the battle, a young monk of Wado-ji Temple washed his fundoshi, a traditional Japanese male underwear made of a long piece of cotton cloth.  When it dried, the boy tied it on a bamboo pole, and played battle.  The Hojo Army mistook it for defeat, fleeing Satomi samurai rising up again, and burned the temple down.

     In 1572, Priest Kyoun revived the temple and renamed it Henjo-in.  It lost most documents in the flood in August, 1704, when the Sumida and Old Tone Rivers flooded and the water covered Gyotoku in Katsushika County, Shimousa Province, and Asakusa in Katsushika County, Musashi Province.  In 1654, the new eastern waterway of the Tone River had been excavated and its water ran both into the New Tone River and still into the old waterway which was renamed the Gongen River.  The Old Tone River flooded at the branch.  The flood water ran down into today's Yoshikawa and Misato Cities.  In February, 1744, those rivers flooded again.  The temple was also destroyed by fire in January, 1882.

     In 1926, many itabi, which were dated between 1304 and 1537, were dug out in the precincts.

      Henjo-in Temple enshrines a statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.

Address: 5 Chome-5-33 Mizumoto, Katsushika Ward, Tokyo 125-0032