Virtual Western Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Shinko-ji Temple

 

     Kumagai Naozane (1141-1208) was based in Kumagai County, Musashi Province, and fought for Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) when Yoritomo started his little-prospective rebellion against the Taira Clan in 1180.  Naozane built a fort on a hill in Nishikubo, Toshima County, Musashi Province.

     On February 7, 1184, when the battle in Suma between the Taira and Minamoto Clans was nearing its end, the Taira Clan commanders and soldiers were fleeing on their vessels. Naozane was still scanning the beach to get a valuable head of any enemy commander. He spotted a young samurai swimming towards the fleeing vessels on his horse. The Tale of Heike continues, “Kumagai beckoned to him with his war fan, crying out: ‘Shameful! to show an enemy your back. Return. Return!’ Then the warrior turned his horse and rode it back to the beach, where Kumagai at once engaged him in mortal combat. Quickly hurling him to the ground, he sprang upon him and tore off his helmet to cut off his head, when he beheld the face of a youth of sixteen or seventeen, delicately powdered and with blackened teeth, just about the age of his own son, and with features of great beauty.” Naozane hesitated, but knew the young enemy would be killed by other Minamoto samurai in either case. Crying, he beheaded the boy, Taira Atsumori (1169-1184).  Naozane became a Buddhist monk in the early 1190’s.

     The fort in Nishikubo was utilized till the end of the Warring-States Period.  The users included Ota Dokan (1432-1486), who built Edo Castle in 1457.  After Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved to Edo, in 1594 precisely, the site was used to found Shinko-ji Temple.

     When Sugen’in or Go (1573-1626), a wife of the 2nd Shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632), died, her body was cremated in Imai Village.  To guard the “holy” place, Hidetada moved Shinko-ji Temple to the cremation site along with the other 3 temples in the village; Kosen-ji, Shoshin-ji, and Kyozen-ji Temples.  The precincts of Shinko-ji Temple had the very spot where her body was cremated.

     Later, the hill was used to supply earth to reclaim marshes and swamps.

     After the 1657 Meireki Great Fire, the Tokugawa Shogunate proliferated the Edo urban districts to widen streets and to supply firebreaks.  The peasants in Nishikubo were forced to move to Mure Village (Mure, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0002), Tama County, in 1662 and they built Nishikubo Village (Nishikubo, Musashino, Tokyo 180-0013) there.  The hill, or the former site of the hill, became the residence of Hojo Ujitoshi (1604-1672), the first lord of the Kawachi-Sayama Domain.

     In 1683, the Fukuhara 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized in Settsu Province to commemorate the 499th anniversary of the death of Taira Atsumori. 

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