Virtual Tama Aqueduct Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 Tamon-ji Temple

 

     Kira Haruie was given Setagaya County in 1366 by Ashikaga Motouji (1340-1367), the first Deputy Shogun in Kamakura.  Kira Shigetaka built Setagaya Castle at the turn of the 15th century.  He developed the junction area of Kitazawa and Karasuyama Rivers in the 1470's and 80's, and called the area Mishuku.  He also built a fortress on the western hill between the 2 rivers.  Vaisravana was enshrined in the fortress as its guardian god.  As Vaisravana is also called Tamon-ten in Japan, the fortress was called Tamonji as well as Mishuku.  The fortress functioned as the eastern defense of Setagaya Castle till the end of the Warring States Period in 1590.

     Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, Buddhism became a state religion, and the Mishuku villagers made Tamon-ji Temple as their family temple.  After the collapse of the shogunate, Shinto became a state religion, and the villagers transferred the temple to Mishuku Shrine in panic.  Accordingly, a graveyard borders on the shrine.  They applied to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government with Vaisravana its main deity.  An official rewrote it in front of the villagers to Omononushi, a Japanese-made god related with Mount Miwa in Sakurai, Yamato Province, detesting Vaisravana, an exotic god.

     The membership of the Tama Aqueduct 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 was moved to Shokoku-ji Temple, the #33 of the Tama Aqueduct 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Mishuku Shrine

Address: 2-27-6 Mishuku, Setagaya City, Tokyo 154-0005