Virtual Yamanote 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #29 Ryusen-ji Temple

 

     Ryusen-ji Temple was founded in Hitotsugicho, Akasaka, where lower-ranking samurai's houses were built close together, and was moved to its present place after the fire in 1887.

     Tokugawa Nobuyasu (1559-1579) was given birth by Sena (?-1579), a niece of Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519-1560), in Sunpu, the capital of the Imagawa Clan, as the first son of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616).  Nobuyasu spent his childhood in Sunpu as a hostage.  After Yoshimoto was killed by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) in the Battle of Okehazama, Ieyasu got independent from the Imagawa Clan.  In 1562, Ieyasu seized Kaminogo Castle in Mikawa Province, killed the lord of the castle, Udono Nagateru (?-1562), and captured Nagateru’s sons, Ujinaga (1549-1624) and Ujitsugu (?-1600).  As the Udono Family belonged to the Imagawa Clan in a large sense, Ieyasu successfully exchanged hostages.  Nobuyasu married Tokuhime (1559-1636), the first daughter of Nobunaga, in May 1567.  Both at the age of 9, the couple started living in Okazaki Castle together.  Later, they had 2 daughters.

     Later, Nobuyasu became the lord of Okazaki Castle, the birthplace of his father, in Mikawa Province in 1570.  As a teenager, he took part in many battles and fought fearlessly and dauntlessly, especially in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575.

     Nobuyasu was a daring warrior, but, as a teenager, he wasn't good at handling their child-and-father relationship.  Neither was Ieyasu. Ieyasu looked timid to Nobuyasu, and Nobuyasu seemed to lack prudence and to be arrogant to Ieyasu.  As often the case in the Warring States Period, the poor father-and-child relation led to the inter-factional strife between the samurai based in Okazaki Castle and those in Hamamatsu Castle, where Ieyasu was based.

     To make the matter worse, Nobuyasu and Tokuhime didn’t have a son.  Nobuyasu’s mother, Sena, was worried, and had Nobuyasu make her maids his concubines.  That, as a matter of course, made the couple's relationship sour.  It is unknown when a conflict between a wife and her mother-in-law started, but the situation made it fiercer.  In July, 1579, not only Ieyasu but also Nobunaga was worried and visited Okazaki.  The alliance between the Oda and Tokugawa Families was shaken.

     Finally, Tokuhime accused Nobuyasu and Sena of their secret communication with Takeda Katsuyori (1546-1582), the common enemy of the Oda and Tokugawa Families in the east, at least officially.  The situation went far beyond a marital quarrel or a conflict between a wife and her mother-in-law.  Potentially, the Tokugawa Family could ally with the Takeda Clan to attack the Oda Family in the west.  Ieyasu had to do something to settle the matter.  Ieyasu was, as Nobuyasu found him out to be, too timid to change his alliance to Katsuyori.  He prudently chose Nobunaga.

     On August 3rd, 1579, Ieyasu visited Okazaki Castle and made Nobuyasu leave the castle for Ohama Fortress the next day.  Nobuyasu was moved to Horie Fortress in Fuchi County, Totomi Province, and then to Futamata Fortress in Toyoda County.  He was ordered to kill himself on September 15th.  His head was sent to Nobunaga and was buried in Wakamiya-Hachiman-gu Shrine in Okazaki.  Previously on August 29th, Sena was killed on Lake Sanaru in Fuchi County.

     After Nobuyasu’s death, Tokuhime was sent back to Nobunaga on February 20th, 1580, with her 2 daughters left with Ieyasu.

     Tokuhime's second daughter, Kumahime (1577-1626), was married to Honda Tadamasa (1575-1631).  Their first son, Tadatoki (1596-1626), married the first daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632), Senhime (1597-1666).  Their 8th generation descendants had Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), the 15th and last Shogun.  It is an irony of history that Nobuyasu's 10th descendant brought an end to the Tokugawa Shogunate

     Nobuyasu’s body was cremated and his ashes were buried by a hermitage in Takinoue, Nukata County, Mikawa Province, where his wet nurse lived her secluded life in the mountains.  Tokugawa Yoshinao (1610-1650), the 9th son of Ieyasu, changed the hermitage into a temple and moved it to Edo.  Priest Kyozan, a brother of Goto Saburoemon, who was subject to Yoshinao, took care of the temple.  The Avalokitesvara statue became known as a guardian Avalokitesvara of children.  Nobuyasu's Buddhist memorial tablet kept in the temple was dated February, 1579, 6 months before his accusation and 7 months before his death.  Why?  It wasn't sorare in medieval days to build a while-alive grave to wish for longevity.  Did the wet nurse pray for the safety of her "son" for half a year desperately and frantically?

One possibility is that she made up her mind in February to gIve up her real son, the milk brother of Nobuyasu, and substitute him for Nobuyasu in case of emergency, and made the tablet for her real son with Nobuyasu's name as a proxy.  That was a kind of a popular plot in popular stories in the Edo Period.  If that had been the case anyway, could it be Kyozan who was Nobuyasu?

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