Virtual Tama Aqueduct Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #24 Togaku-in Temple

 

     Monk Gekku of Hase-dera Temple in Yamato Province visited other provinces and arrived in the wilderness in Tama County, Musashi Province, in 1288.  He built a small hermitage.  Its premises became a holy place, and Nun Myoshin built her itabi, a Musashi-Province-style grave, in 1453.  In the Warring States Period, the Later Hojo Clan employed a measure to increase provincial wealth and military power.  People developed the wilderness around the hermitage and set up Megurisawa Village.  The villagers changed the hermitage into a temple and named it Daigan-ji in 1558, 2 years before the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan, the hegemon in the Kanto Region. 

     Hojo Tokimune (1251-1284), the 8th Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, reigned with terror to repel the Mongolian Invasions in 1274 and 1281.  The sighting of the samurai power might have attracted Gekku to Musashi Province.  However, the reinforcement of the Kamakura Shogunate also meant the reinforcement of the Regency power, including their vassals.  In the 1280's, the leader of the direct vassals of the Shogun was Adachi Yasumori (1231-1285), while Taira Yoritsuna (?-1293) led the Regency vassals.  At noon on November 17th, 1285, when Yasumori visited the Regency residence, he fell into Yoritsuna's ambush.  More than 30 were killed on the spot, and the Adachi Family was destroyed by the evening.  The raids against direct vassals were made nationwide, and more than 500 were either killed or cornered to commit suicide.  In 1287, Emperor Go-Uda (1267-1324) was replaced with Emperor Fushimi (1265-1317).  Gekku came all the way from Yamato Province to the Kanto Region, but, realizing the samurai power and their reality, Gekku rather chose to retreat to the wilderness.

     In the 15th century, the conflict between the Kamakura Deputy Shogunate under the Ashikaga Central Shogunate and the Regency of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate was in a fix.  In 1454, the Kyotoku War broke out and lasted for 28 years till 1482.  Myoshin passed away in the calm before the storm.

     In the Edo Period, a Kono lost his eyesight.  He prayed to Hikawa-jinja Shrine and, one night, he dreamed of an oracle to pray to Chugu-Hachiman Shrine in Mt. Fuji.  He shut himself up in the shrine nights and days.  One night, he got a 12 centimeters tall Bhaisajyaguru statue with another oracle to bring it east.  He brought it back east to his hometown, and his eye disease was cured.  He enshrined it in Daigaku-ji Temple and changed its name to Togaku-in.  The Bhaisajyaguru statue is normally hidden from public view, and only the Kono Family display the statue every 20 years.

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