Virtual Musashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #6 Josho-ji Temple

 

     Kannon-ji Temple was founded in Kaizuka Village, Katsushika County, Shimousa Province, at the beginning of the 16th century.  When Ina Tadaharu (1606-1653) changed the watercourse of the Ara, Old Tone, and Old Watarase Rivers under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the temple sank under the riverbed of the Edo River.  Hiramoto Sadahisa and his son, Sadakatsu, revived the temple in Miwanoe Village.

     The Hiramoto Family spun out of the Takagi Family, who were subject to the Later Hojo Clan.  Specifically speaking, Takagi Sadatane's second son, Tokisada, started calling his family Hiramoto.  Unfortunately, it wasn't recorded when they lived.  The Hiramoto Family, however, was based in Hanawa Castle on Mt. Miwano in Katsuhika County, Shimousa Province.  The castle was built as part of the Takagi Family's rule over the left bank of the Old Watarase River, or today's Edo River.  So, that must have been after Takagi Taneyoshi (1501-1565) moved his base from Negiuchi Castle to Kogane Castle, which commanded the estuary of the Ara, Old Tone, and Old Watarase Rivers to control the inland waterway between Edo Bay and the northern part of the Kanto Region.

     After the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan in 1590, the Takagi Family fell, and the Hiramoto Family returned to farming.  The Hiramoto Family developed the right bank of the Old Watarase River, and they called the area Miwanoe Village after Mt. Miwano.  "E" means a river.  Hiramoto Sadahisa was the head of the family.  He heard of Kannon-ji Temple's crisis, and moved it to his village.  His son, Sadakatsu, finished building the temple but its bell tower.  Priest Choin, renamed the temple Teisho, which was the Chinese-style pronunciation of Sadakatsu.  Sadahisa's grandson, Sadatomo, finally built the bell tower.

     The temple enshrines an eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue, which was said to have been carved by Yeon Munhoe, a Buddhist sculptor from Goguryeo, who also carved an Ekadasamukha statue for the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Hase-dera Temple in 727.

     To save Edo from floods, Ina Tadaharu first stopped at Aino River, a bypass of the Old Tone River.  In 1621, he finished digging a canal to make the Old Tone River flow into the Watarase River, and started separating the Kinu and Kobai Rivers.  In 1629, he made the Ara River flow into the Iruma River, and the New Kinu River started running.  In 1630, the New Kobai River started running.  In 1635, he started building the Edo River and finished it in 1641.  Do you follow what I have said?  I wonder how many people understood his ultimate end.  Finally in 1654, 1 year after his death, the Tone river ran east directly to the Pacific Ocean.  After the mid 17th century, the floods of the Tone River never hit Edo but troubled the lowland areas along the border between Hitachi and Shimousa Provinces.

Address: 1553 Miwanoe, Yoshikawa, Saitama 342-0027

Phone: 048-982-0957