Virtual Tama Aqueduct Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #25 Soshigaya Kanzeon-do Temple

 

     Fujiwara Fuyutsugu (775-826) became the Prime Minister in Kyoto. He had 8 sons. His 3rd son, Yoshikata, moved up through the aristocratic ladder far slower than his brothers. His son gave up the success in aristocratic society, and followed Minamoto Yoriyoshi (988-1075), when the Imperial Court fought against the Abe Clan in Mutsu Province from 1051 to 1063, the Former Nine Years' War. After the war, Motokata settled in Kasuya Manor, Osumi County, Sagami Province, and called his family Kasuya.

     Kasuya Arisue (?-1203) first fought against Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) when Yoritomo rebelled against the Taira Clan, but transferred to Yoritomo soon. When Yoritomo's youngest brother, Yoshitusne (1159-1189), advanced to Kyoto to suppress their cousin, Minamoto Yoshinaka (1154-1184), Arisue followed Yoshitsune. When Yoshitsune lost his position and was disgraced, he followed Hiki Tomomune to hunt Yoshitsune's remnants in Kyoto. Whenever power struggles among the Minamoto Clan broke out, Arisue was on the winners' side. After Yoritomo's death, his vassals started their own power games. In 1200, the power games turned into a real battle. When Kajiwara Kagetoki (1140-1200) was banished from Kamakura, and was killed on his escape flight to Kyoto in 1200, Arisue captured Kagetoki's friend, Minamoto Takashige. When Hiki Yoshikazu (?-1203) was framed up by Hojo Tokimasa (1138-1215), alas, Arisue's devil's luck ran out, and was killed in battle together with the Hiki Family. He was married to Yoshikazu's youngest daughter.

     Arisue's 3 sons, Arihisa (?-1221), Arinaga (-1221) and Hisasue, fled to Kyoto and became soldiers of Emperor Go-Toba (1180-1239). When the emperor rebelled against the Kamakura Shogunate, the 2 elder brothers were killed in battle. Hisasue was injured in battle in Oido on Kiso River on June 5th. Fed up with being disposable in the Imperial Army, he returned to his homeland, the Kanto Region. He went upstream along a tributary stream of Tama River, made his way into a branch gully of the stream, and settled in the nameless small valley in Musashi Province. His offspring embraced the teachings of Nichiren (1222-1282). After Nichiren’s death, they carved the statue of him and enshrined it in the gully. As Nichiren was called Soshi, namely Founding Reverend, the valley was called Shoshi-ga-ya, Founding Reverend's Valley.

     Centuries passed. In 1654, the Fukuda Jinzaemon in Shimo-Soshigaya, Lower Founding Reverend's Valley, led the villagers there, built an Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue, and enshrined it in a small hall, which became Soshigaya-Kannon-do Temple.

     After World War II, people's beliefs faded and Soshigaya-Kannon-do Temple went to ruin. Fukuda Fuku, however, remembered her ancestors' intent and squeezed in 100,000 yen. That moved other locals including Ishii Kenji. They raised 600,000 yen, and rebuilt the temple. I wonder why the Kasuya Family wasn’t involved.

     Let’s keep it simple.  It might have been in Kami-Soshigaya on the left bank of Sen River that the Kasuya Family settled.  As the population increased, the locals developed the opposite side and called the area Shimo-Soshigaya.  Shimo-Soshigaya people found it inconvenient to cross the river and built a new one on the right side of the river.  I don’t know if the Kasuya Family’s offspring still live in Soshigaya, but we can find the place name Kasuya on the left bank of the river just across the street north from Soshigaya.

Address: 9 Chome-1-6 Seijo, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0066

Soshi-do Temple

Address: 4 Chome-33-11 Soshigaya, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0072

Phone: 03-5490-6415