Virtual Yamanote 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #30 Seigan-ji Temple

 

     Seigen-ji Temple was abolished in 1877, and we can hardly trace back its history.  We can only find a patchwork of information.  The temple belonged to Pure Land Buddhism and was a branch temple of Chion-in Temple in Kyoto.

     Utagawa Hiroshige the second (1826-1869) was buried in the temple.  He was a ukiyoe artist who married a daughter of Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), and who succeeded the style and name of Hiroshige I.

     The Kawamura Family was a supporting member of the temple.

     Kawamura Nagataka (1795-1878) was the head of a group of government-employed undercover ninja agents.  The group was established by Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684–1751), the 8th Shogun. They were under the direct command of the Shoguns and were in charge of undercover intelligence operations.  Nagataka was appointed to be a commissioner of Niigata, Sakai, Osaka, and Nagasaki.  As Niigata and Nagasaki were newly opened to foreign countries at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, he might have gathered the information on foreign countries as well.

     Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934) was a grandchild of Nagataka, and became a professional Western painter after the Meiji Restoration.  At the age of 7, he learned Japanese painting from Sumiyoshi Hirokata (1835-1883).  The Sumiyoshi School of Japanese painting branched out from the Tosa School and moved to Edo at the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate.  At the age of 9, Kiyoo stayed in Osaka with his grandfather and learned from Tanomura Choku’nyu (1814-1907), who was one of the last literati painters in Japan.  Kiyoo returned to Edo and learned from Haruki Nanmei (1795-1878), who was good at bird-and-flower painting.

Address: 4 Chome-2 Akasaka, Minato City, Tokyo 107-0052