Virtual Edo Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #27 Saiko-ji Temple

 

     Saiko-ji Temple was founded by Priest Eisho (1563-1643) in 1606.

     After the death of Miyoshi Nagayoshi (1522-1564), the Miyoshi Regime, which was the de facto central government at the time, split into 3 groups and suffered from internal conflicts.  Nagayoshi’s nephew, Yoshitsugu (1549-1573), succeeded to the head of the Miyoshi Clan just before the death of Nagayoshi, who was already unreliable at the time.  Yoshitsugu lagged behind the other 2 groups, and invited Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) to the central government in 1568.  Yoshitsugu and Nobunaga fought in cooperation for a while, but they broke up in 1571.  On November 13th, Yoshitsugu’s base, Wakae Castle in Kawachi Province, fell, he killed his wife and son, charged his enemy, and cut his stomach in cross.  His old vassal from Nagayoshi’s days, Matsunaga Hisahide (1508-1577), kept fighting against Nobunaga.  Nobunaga seized Hisahide’s base, Shigisan Castle in Yamato Province, in October, 1577.  On the 10th, Hisahide smashed his loving tea iron pot, Hiragumo, set fire to his own castle, and killed himself.

     Sometime after Nobunaga took Miyoshi’s place, Kobayashi Kunihiro left Osaka, Settsu Province. He arrived at Ushijima Island in the estuary of the Old Tone River, developed rice paddies, and started farming nori, a kind of edible seaweed.  Okamura Kintaro (1867-1935), the author of the Illustrations of the Marine Algae of Japan, argued that farming nori dated back to the 1450’s.  According to “Buko Nenpyo”, the History of Edo, Musashi Province, which was written by Saito Gesshin (1804-1878), and which was published in 1850, farming nori started in Omori, Edo, in the 1680’s and spread to whole the nation later.  Anyway, Kunihoro is remembered as one of the pioneers of farming nori.  In 1606, Kunihiro invited Priest Eisho from Mikawa Province and founded Saiko-ji Temple.

     Saiko literally meant West Lights.  Did Kunihiro remember his days in Osaka?  Or was it Eisho who remembered his days in Mikawa Province?

Address: 2 Chome-4-7 Chitose, Sumida City, Tokyo 130-0025

Phone: 03-3633-3542