Virtual Eastern Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #15 Ryoho-in Temple

     Ryoho-in Temple used to be a shrine Temple of Goriki-Inari Shrine, which was founded by peasants, or tenant farmers, in San'ya Village sometime between 1558 and 1569.  The village was located at the junction of Oshu and Nikko Highways, which were two of the five main Edo period highways.  As the village was a kind of a northern gateway of Edo, cheap lodging houses that did not serve meals were built along the highways around the junction.  During the Edo Period, the area eventually formed a flophouse or doss house district.

     In 1558, the Eiroku Great Famine started.  In 1559, the sun blazed down and it didn't rain even in the rainy season.  Paddy fields dried up and were cracked.  Smallpox raged.  In the winter of 1560, after the harvest time, to relieve their domestic famine, Uesugi Kagetora (1530-1578) invaded the Northern Kanto Region. After the year, he invaded the region for 7 years to relieve his domestic famine.  In 1569, Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573) won the hegemony over the Northern Shinano Province against Kagetora.  In 1569, to deflect people's criticism of famine, both Harunobu and Hojo Ujiyasu (1515-1571), the lord of the Southern Kanto Region, became priests, in name only though.  The zero-sum game among the three weakened them all, and Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) took advantage of their struggles and weakening.

     In those years, the tenant peasants in San'ya Village clung to divine protection.  For what?  They built a shrine and named it Goriki Shrine, namely Union Shrine.  They depended on divine protection to strengthen their unity.

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