Virtual Modern Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Myoon-in Temple

     It is unknown when Myoon-in Temple was founded.  In 1590, when Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved to the Kanto Region, to control the morals of priests and monks in Senso-ji Temple, he selected pure and clean priests and monks, and reduced the number of its branch temples in its precincts to 33.  Myoon-in Temple was one of those that survived.

     Myoon-in Temple used to be by Ubaga-ike Pond, which was reclaimed in 1891.

     When Senso-ji Temple was founded in the 6th or 7th century, the area was called Asajiga-hara, and wasteland stretched as far as the eye could see.  The highway to Mutsu Province ran through the wasteland.  A solitary shabby house was by a pond along the highway.   An old woman and her daughter lived in the shack.  When it got dark in Asajiga-hara, travelers had no choice but to ask for a stay in the shank.  The 2 women kindly let them stay.  In the dead of night, the old woman revealed her true character.  She had a traveler sleep with a stone pillow.  When the traveler fell fast asleep, she dropped a big stone on the head of the traveler.  She took away money and goods, and dumped bodies in the pond.  The daughter found the deeds shameful and mean, and tried to stop her mother many times.  The old woman wouldn’t listen to her daughter.

     The old woman had killed 999 travelers.  One evening, a handsome young man asked for a stay.  The old woman led him to bed as usual, and waited for him to fall fast asleep.  At an appropriate time, she dropped a big stone on his head.  When she checked his body, she realized that it was her daughter’s.  She regretted having killed her own daughter, and threw herself into the pond.  Thereafter, the pond came to be called Ubaga-ike, literally Old Woman’s Pond.

     It is unknown if the foundation of Myoon-in Temple had something to do with the old story.  Can a folk tale, especially an urban legend, be a modern way to talk about the past?

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