Virtual Tama Aqueduct Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #12 Chigyo-in Temple

     Kitami Village used to have a Juo-do Hall.  Juo literally means 10 kings, and they are actually 10 judges who reside between this world and the next world and who evaluate the dead, assessing their deeds in this world.

     King Qinguang judges the dead 6 days after their death.  King Chujiang judges the dead 13 days after their death.  First 7 judges are on duty after a multiple of seven, but as we didn't have the idea of 0, the first judge serves on the 6th day.  King Songdi judges after 20 days, King Wuguan after 27 days, King Yanmo after 34 days, King Biancheng after 41 days, and King Taishan after 48 days.  King Pingdeng doesn't seem so hard-working and judges the dead after 99 days.  As Pingdeng literally means equality or egalitarianism, the king might care about work-life balance.  The other 2 kings are less occupied.  King Dushi judges the dead a year after their death, and King Wudaozhuanlun after 2 years.  The dead have to wait for 2 years before they are judged which hell to go to.

     The village also had  Homa Hall, where fire rituals were performed.

     In 1588, Priest Raizon organized the 2 halls into a temple, which was named Chigyo-in.

In 1587, Hojo Ujiteru (1542-1590) moved his base from Takiyama Castle to Hachioji Castle to prepare against the invasion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), which actually carried out in 1590.  Kitami Katsutada (1568-1628) was the 23rd head of the family, which had branched out from the Chichibu Clan.  When Ota Sukenaga (1432-1486) built Edo Castle, the family moved to Kitami Village.  Katsutada was first subject to the Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun.  After the collapse of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate in 1583, he became subject to Ujiteru.  He supported building the temple to make it the guard in the north-east of his territory.  The direction was supposed to be unlucky.

     At first, the temple's main deity was an eleven-faced Ekadasamukha statue.  As it was small, the 14th Priest Ben'yu changed it to an image of Amitabha, which had been carved by Kaikei.

     After the Meiji Restoration, Juzen-ji Temple, Chigyo-in Temple's head temple, was abolished and its main deity, a Bhaisajyaguru statue, was moved to Keigen-ji Temple.  In 1887, Chigyo-in Temple welcomed the statue, and changed it to its main deity in 1908.  Its former deities?  I have no idea as to their whereabouts.  

Address: 5 Chome-19-2 Kitami, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0067

Phone: 03-3417-3456