Virtual Eastern Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #23 Jusho-in Temple

 

     Shoju-in Temple was founded by Priest Shoju (?-1586) in Odawara, Sagami Province, in 1573.  In the 1560's, Uesugi Terutora (1530-1578) repeatedly invaded the Kanto Region from Echigo Province to outsource the shortage of food caused by famine.  In 1568, he changed his target to Ecchu Province.  Instead, Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573) started invading the Kanto Region from Kai Province to outsource their shortage.  In 1571, Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590), the 4th head of the Later Hojo Clan, successfully reached the peace negotiations with Harunobu.  In 1574, Terutora invaded the Kanto Region again.  So, Shoju-in Temple was founded when the region enjoyed momentary stability and peace but it soon faced political diastrophism in the region.

     In 1590, when When Rintei was the third priest of Shoju-in Temple, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) destroyed the Later Hojo Clan and ordered Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) to move from the Tokai Region to the Kanto Region.  In 1594, 4 years after the diastrophism in the Kanto Region, Rintei was ordered to move to Edo, which was expanding rapidly, as a supply of priests and monks to the city.  Rintei didn't abandon Shoju-in Temple.  Instead, he rented a room in the residence of Hachisuka Yoshishige (1586-1620), the first lord of Awa Domain, in Edo and started another Shoju-in Temple there.  Yoshishige's father, Iemasa (1558-1639), had sieged Nirayama Castle in Izu Province when Hideyoshi sieged Odawara Castle.  Rintei or his predecessor might have got acquainted with Iemasa then.  Rintei was succeeded by Daiko in 1603, moved to Daitoku-ji Temple in Guma County, Kozuke Province, and presumably died there.  As Daitoku-ji Temple was founded in 1615, it might have been Rintei himself who founded the temple.  Then, he might have been from the county.

     Gunma County and its surrounding area was ruled by the Nagano Family, based in Minowa Castle, which was built in 1512 with Harunashira River in the west and Lake Haruna in the south as natural moats.  Nagano Narimasa (1491-1561) claimed they were descendants of Arihara Narihira (825-880), who was believed to be a main character of the Tale of Ise. As the main character visited the Eastern Provinces, Narihira was believed to have visited the Eastern Provinces. Actually, the Nagano Family was a powerful local family who actually ruled the western half of Kozuke Province. When Narimasa died, he left his last words to his son, Ujinari (1544-1566), the last head of the family:

After my death, just make a small grave like a milestone. Hold no Buddhist memorial service for me. Just offer as many heads of our enemies to my grave. If your luck runs out, gracefully die in battle. That will be the best devotion and dedication to me. Nothing will be better than that.

     When Ujinari lost to the Takeda Clan on September 29th, 1566, he committed suicide in front of Narimasa's Buddhist memorial tablet in the Buddhist Hall in the castle, with his death poem left:

In the mountains of Minowa,

All the flowers were blown off,

Only with their names left.

     Ujinari's only boy, Kiju-maru, who was no more than a baby, was carried in Ujinari's vassal's arms, and was sheltered in Gokuraku-in Temple, which was located 6 kilometers south from the castle.  He married the niece of the vassal and had 5 children.  

     After the Takeda Clan, the castle was occupied by the Oda Clan, and then by the Later Hojo Clan in 1582.

     Rintei might have been one of Kiju-maru’s 5 children, could have prayed for the comfort of the Nagano Family in Jusho-in Temple in Odawara, and that should be why he was concerned about keeping Jusho-in Temple in Odawara open.

     In 1644, Jusho-in Temple in Edo was moved to Karigafuchi, and was moved to its present place in 1645, with its original still in Odawara.

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