Virtual Tama Aqueduct Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #14 Kissho-in Temple

 

     In 740, Gyoki (668-749) went through Kamata Village, Tama County, Musashi Province.  He met a poor woman who was about 60 years old.  She prayed to Ksitigarbha every night and day, and she asked Gyoki how to be liberated from earthly bondage and rest in peace.  Next Year, on January 24th, he returned to the village with a Ksitigarbha statue. The Hata Family helped build a hall for the statue.

     The Hata Clan came from Baekje in Korea Peninsula to Japan in 283.  Their branch families spread to Yamato, Yamashiro, Kawachi, Settsu, Awa and Iyo Provinces.  Their descendants further moved to Hadano, Sagami Province, and Kugayama, Musashi Province, and developed their settlements.  Those in Kugayama built an irrigation canal from Inokashira Pond.  The canal ran along a ridge on the Musashi Plateau to Kitazawa River, and was used as a part of the Tama Aqueduct nearly a millennium later. 

https://tokyoriver.exblog.jp/16828988/

     Roben (689-774) revived the temple and enshrined an Acalanatha statue.  The temple burned down in 1335.  On December 22nd in the year, Kitabatake Akiie (1318-1338) left Mutsu Province to advance to Kyoto.  When he passed Musashi Province, the temple was burned down.  He attacked Kamakura on January 2nd, 1336.  Later, the temple was revived, supported by Kira Shigetaka.

     Although Ashikaga Osauji (1211-1290) was the eldest son of Yoshiuji (1189-1255), as his mother was a maidservant, he became subject to the family.  After 1241, he left Kamakura and moved to Kira Manor in Mikawa Province to become the guardian samurai of the manor.  Since then, he called his family Kira.  In 1345, Kira Sadaie moved to Mutsu to fight for the Northern Court against the Kitabatake Family.  In 1553, he finally occupied Taga Castle in Mutsu.  His second son, Haruie, lost in infighting of the family and ran away to Akima Village, Usui County, Kozuke Province.  He was picked by Ashikaga Motouji (1340-1367), the first Kando Deputy Shogun.  Haruie's offspring, Shigetaka, settled in Setagaya Fortress, Ebara County, Musashi Province, which was located downstream Karasugawa River, which runs through the southern valley of the ridge where the Hata Family constructed an irrigation canal.  He married a daughter of Uesugi Mochitomo (1416-1467), the head of Ogigayatsu-Uesugi Clan, and was subject to the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate.  He revived Kissho-in Temple.  Shigetaka's son, Yoriyasu (?-1562), however, married a daughter of Hojo Ujitsuna (1486-1541) and dumped the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate and the Kanto Deputy Shogunate itself.  However, he was forced to adopt Ujitsuna's grandson, and the Kira Family was taken over by the Later Hojo Clan.  After the clan collapsed in 1590, Kissho-in Temple lost its supporters, but neighboring farmers rebuilt its buildings.

     Well then, let’s get back to Kissho-in Temple’s start again.  I’m not talking about the old lady, but about the Hata Family, who constructed the irrigation system.  Where did they or their offspring go?  What if they stayed in Kamata and its surrounding area, managing the irrigation system?  They must have been handy for newcomers such as the Kira Family.  That might have been why the family took good care of the temple which had been actually founded by the Hata Family in ancient times.  And it might have been the family’s descendants that took care of the temple in the Edo Period.

Address: 4 Chome−11−18 Kamata, Setagaya, Tokyo 157-0077

Phone: 03-3416-4468