Virtual Musashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Rendai-ji Temple

     There were natural levees along the Old Tone River.  The Shimozuma Road weaved its way through the levees.  In one of them, good persimmon trees grew and travelers took a rest, eating the fruits.  The levee was called Kakinoki.

     It is unknown when Rendai-ji Temple was founded in Kakinoki Village.  For some reason, villagers built another hermitage in the village.  After the original Rendai-ji Temple became out of business, they moved its name to their hermitage, which is today's Rendai-ji Temple.

     Its precincts have a Kannon-do Hall.  The New Chorography on Musashi Province, which was compiled by Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) at the beginning of the 19th century, tells us the hall enshrines an Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, while others say it enshrines an eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue.

     #13 Kosho-in Temple's deity, a statue of Cundi, who has 16 arms and appears to be female, was brought there by some members of the Toyoda Family, who were vassals of the Takagi Family. 

     Almost a millennium ago, the Boso Peninsula was still almost an island, and most part of the Kanto Plain was marshland. Between the Musashi Plateau and the Boso Peninsula, there ran Tone and Watarase Rivers, meeting and branching one another here and there from time to time, into Edo Bay.  In the eastern part of the marshland, there flowed the Kinu River into the Katori Sea, forming a large flood plain.  The watershed between the 2 parts of the marshland was so low that they used to be connected to each other through a wetland or a river.  Let me call the 2 parts the Tone-Watarase River System and the Kinu River System.

     The Takagi Family used to be based in Negiuchi Castle.  When their master, the Hara Family, lost Oyumi Castle to Ashikaga Yoshiaki (?-1538), who became an Oyumi-Kanto Deputy Shogun based in Oyumi Castle, Takagi Taneyoshi (1501-1565) moved his base from Negiuchi Castle to Kogane Castle, which commanded estuary of Tone-Watarase River System.  Taneyoshi tried to control the inland waterway between Edo Bay and the northern part of the Kanto Region.  To control the inland waterway, he set his eyes on the Kinu River System too.  In the process, Toyoda Haruchika became subject to Taneyoshi.  The relationship of the 2 families was so strong that, even after the collapse of the Takagi Family in 1590, Haruchika's offspring  prayed for the comfort of Taneyoshi in the other world in Rendai-ji Temple. 

     Who were the Toyoda Family?

     The Toyoda Family  was hereditary guardian samurai of Toyoda County, Shimousa Province, and built Ishige Castle along the Kinu River, which ran into the Katori Sea.

     Meanwhile, Satake Yoshishige (1547-1612), whose family had been based in the Northern part of Hitachi Province, advanced to the southern part, almost unified the province, and was expanding his territory further.  It means Yoshishige was trying to control the Kinu River System with Tagaya Masatsune (?-1576) as his vassal.

     The Toyoda Family was based in Toyoda Castle (Address: 1303 Mototoyoda, Joso, Ibaraki 300-2711) and the Tagaya Family was based in Shimozuma Castle.  The two castles were just 8 kilometers away from each other along the Kinu River.  The Toyoda and Tagaya Families were in the forefront of the struggle between the Takagi and Satake Families.

     Who were the Tagaya Family?

     In ancient times, there used to be the Musashi Seven Corps.  The most part of Musashi Province was plateaus deeply covered with volcanic-ash soil, which was suitable for stock farming, not for rice growing.  In ancient times, many of the naturalized Silla people then were sent to Musashi Province, and engaged in the stock farming.  That stimulated people there, and many stock farms were set up, including 6 imperial stock farms.  The custodians of those farms later formed small-scale would-be-samurai families.  By marriage, those would-be-samurai families composed 7 corps on the Musashi Plateaus.  The Noyo Corp was one of them.

     The Tagaya Family belonged to the Noyo Corp, and became subject to the Yuki Family.

     Tawara Tota (891-958) was an official of the Shimotsuke Provincial Government.  He was from Tawara Village, Kawachi County, Shimotsuke Province.

     In 939, Taira Masakado (?-940) tried to be independent from Japan in the Kanto Region.  Tota suppressed Masakado’s revolt, and was promoted to be the governor of Shimotsuke and Musashi Provinces.  Tota’s 1st son, Chitsune (?-1012) lived in Oyama, Tsuga County, Shimotsuke Province, and ruled the area. One of his offspring, Tomomitsu (1168-1254), moved to Yuki County, Shimousa Province, and called his family Yuki.

     Tagaya Shigemasa (?-1566) changed his master from the Yuki Family to the Satake Family in Hitachi Province, in which the Kinu River ran and the Katori Sea lay.  In 1571, Shigemasa's son, Masatsune (?-1576), captured Yatabe Fortress, which was located between Shimozuma Castle and the Katori Sea.  The occupation enabled him to attack Toyoda Castle on both flanks.  

     Toyoda Haruchika (?-1575) was devotedly religious.  He not only believed in the goddess in Mt. Tsukuba and Avalokitesvara as most locals did, but also had faith in Raiden Shrine in Oharagi County, Kozuke Province, which was located in the Tone-Watarase River System.  He visited the shrine annually.  While he was visiting the shrine in 1575, Masatsune made surprise attacks both on Haruchika's party and on Toyoda Castle. 

     Haruchika was killed and Toyoda Castle fell.  Haruchika's wife and 2 children fled to Kakinoki Village, where their relatives lived, with some vassals and peasants.  They invited the goddess of Mt. Tsukuba and built the Nyotai Shrine.

     There were natural levees along the Old Tone River.  The Shimozuma Road weaved its way through the levees.  In one of them, good persimmon trees grew and travelers took a rest, eating the fruits.  The levee was called Kakinoki, namely Presimmon Tree.

     Between Kakinoki and Senbiki Villages, there were 12 mounds under which the war dead were buried.

     Kakinoki Village had Juusan-do Hall, which enshrined a Buddhist image Haruchika's wife brought from Toyoda Castle, and the Toyoda Family's graveyard.  Inscriptions on most gravestones were unreadable, but one of them was the grave of the 26th head of the family.

     When Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) hunted down and killed Yoshinaka (1154-1184), the Toyoda Family dispatched their family member, who stayed in Kakinoki on their way back and who finally settled there.

     The Toyoda Family's relatives might have called themselves Kakinoki. In a battle in January, 1521, Kakinoki Shozen was recorded to have fought.  The Kakinoki Family spread to the surrounding area: Oi, Miyoshi, Hatoyama, Asaka, Niiza, Hatogaya, Omiya, Yashio, Soka, Satte, Koshigaya, Kodama, and more.  They developed their own villages.  Ozone Village was one of them.  For some reason, Rendai-ji Temple was moved to Ozone Village later.  Presumably, the Old Tone River flooded.

     Toyoda Sentaro was the head of the family in the Meiji Period.  His properties had a mound which was 4-meter tall and 60 square meters, from which a decorated hexagonal cylinder with a sutra in it and a knife were excavated and which were supposed to have been buried in the 15th century, before the arrival of Haruchika's wife and children.

     Another modern Toyoda Castle was reconstructed to enhance tourism about 1.5 kilometers Northeast (Address: 2011 Shinishige, Joso, Ibaraki 300-2706).

Address: 343 Ozone, Yashio, Saitama 340-0834