Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 Chosen-ji Temple

 

     In the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), people tried cultivating the valleys and ravines of the Musashino Plateau from the south.  Where Sen River meets the southernmost tip of the Musashino Plateau, there is a hill.  The hill came to be called Karasuyama, and Karasuyama Village was developed in the 15th century at the latest.  Settlers came from different communities.  Some invited Goddess Shirahime and others invited God Mitake.  They seem to have been mountaineers.  Some invited Goddess Amaterasu and others invited Goddess Ukanomitama.  They were definitely agricultural people.  Some others even invited Sugawara Michizane (845-903) as a god, of course after his tragic death.  Their religious complex was called Oisenomori, namely Ise Woods with an honorific title O as a prefix.

     The temple burned down in 1650, and was moved to its present place.

     The temple's Kannon-do Hall, Entsu-kaku, was built in 1728 with the copies of the deities of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in it.  Nakata Yoshinobu also painted a crowd of the pilgrims of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in the hall.  The picture shows what people wore and how they behaved in their pilgrimages.

Address: 1 Chome-18-11 Kamitakaido, Suginami City, Tokyo 168-0074

Phone: 03-3304-9825

Clouds Over the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #25 Nenbutsu-do Temple

 

     In the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), people tried cultivating the valleys and ravines of the Musashino Plateau from the south.  Where Sen River meets the southernmost tip of the Musashino Plateau, there is a hill.  A Bhaisajyaguru statue was enshrined in a hut there, which was called Yakushi-do, namely  Bhaisajyaguru Hall.  The hill came to be called Karasuyama.

     In the Warring States Period (1467-1568), Kira Shigetaka used the hall for a training center to chant Namo Amitabhaya Buddhaya, and the hall came to be also called Nenbutsu-do, namely to Chant Buddhaya.

     In the Edo Period (1603-1867), the plateau was developed and the population there increased.  Accordingly, the number of the dead also increased.  In 1688, the temple's precincts came to be used as a graveyard.

Address: 2 Chome-23-16 Minamikarasuyama, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0062

Phone: 03-3300-5781

Clouds Over the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #24 Kyuden-Kannon-do Temple

 

     Kyuden referred to rice paddies or paddy land provided by the lord of a manor or a provincial government office to manor custodians, land stewards, land tax transporters, handicraft workers, and so on in medieval Japan. The Kyuden system was established from the end of the Heian Period (794-1185) to the beginning of the Kamakura Period (1185-1333).  In the Edo Period (1603-1867), Kyuden sometimes referred to the paddy land which was given to a non-samurai important person.

     Kyuden Village in Tama County, Musashi Province, was called as such since the paddy land there was given to a certain high-ranking lady whose posthumous Buddhist name was Fumon'in.  After her death, a Japanese pagoda with the Karandamudra Dharani Sutra was built near her hermitage.  She was said to have something to do with the Kishu Tokugawa Family and, as the pagoda was located near the Koshu Highway, the vassals of the Tokugawa Clan were supposed to get off his horse in front of the pagoda.  She must have had a certain reason for her personal history to have been hidden or unrecorded.

     Later, for the sake of convenience, the hermitage and pagoda were moved to their present place.  The hermitage came to be called Kannon-do.

Address: 3 Chome-15 Kyuden, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0064

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #23 Shoo-ji Temple

 

     Shoo-ji Temple was founded by Iitaka Sadamasa (1529-1612), who invited Priest Kaiyo (?-1637).  Sadamasa was first subject to Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519-1560), who was the lord of Suruga Province and who also ruled Totomi and Mikawa Provinces.  9 years after Yoshimoto was killed by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), Yoshimoto's son, Ujizane (1538-1615), was expelled from Suruga Province.

     After the collapse of the Imagawa Clan, Sadamasa retired from fighting and retreated to Numazu, Suruga Province.  After Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved to Edo in 1590, Sadamasa was hired by Ieyasu and was given Sengawa Village.  His body was buried in Shoo-ji Temple.

The Musashino Plateau was further developed, and Kitano Village was formed in the north of Sengawa Village.  As Kitano Village merged into Mitaka Village in 1889, some supporters of Shoo-ji Temple live in Mitaka City, not in Chofu City.

Address: 3 Chome−7−1 Sengawacho, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0002

Phone: 03-3300-2860

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Kannon-ji Temple

 

     Nun Shumei revived an abandoned hermitage in Kitano Village in 1890, changed it into a convent, and named it Kannon-ji.

     The Constitution of the Empire of Japan was proclaimed on February 11, 1889, and became in force on November 29, 1890.  In 1868, the medieval city of Edo, seat of the Tokugawa government, was renamed Tokyo.  On May 1st, 1889, Tokyo City was organized with 15 wards in Tokyo Prefecture.  Japan was preparing itself for its modernization.  However, something drove Shumei to help women train with Buddhism.  Or was the convent a shelter?

     Some farmers and peasants of Senkawa Village developed the wilds in the north of the village in the 1670's, when there was a boom of developing Musashino Plateau.  The first boom of developing Musashino Plateau started in the 1650's and lasted 3 decades.  Along the Tama Aqueduct, 17 new villages were developed and 56 new villages were developed along Nobidome Aqueduct, a branch aqueduct of Tama Aqueduct.  In 1695, the new village with 72 households was named Kitano, namely North Wilds.

     In 1810, the Academy of the Tokugawa Shogunate started compiling provincial topographies and chronologies.  Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) participated in compiling those about Musashi and Sagami Provinces. When Kotonobu finished compiling the New Topography and Chronology of Musashi Province in 1830, Kitano Village had no temple, and villagers relied on Shoo-ji Temple, the Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #23, in Sengawa Village.  Even today, there are many supporting families of Shoo-ji Temple in Kitano, Mitaka City, although Shoo-ji Temple is located in Chofu City.

     Then, was the hermitage originally built after 1830?

Address: 4 Chome−7−8 Kitano, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0003

Phone: 03-3300-4552

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #21 Amida-do Temple

 

     Kami-Soshigaya Village in Ebara County, Musashi Province, had Annon-ji Temple on the left bank of Sen River.  Villagers on the right bank built their own cemetery for their convenience.  Sometime, a hut was built to enshrine Amitabha and Avalokiteshvara statues in it.  The hut came to be called Amida-do after Amitabha.

Amidadokyodo Cemetery

Address: 6 Chome-12 Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0065

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Henjo-in Temple

 

     Nothing is known about Henjo-ji Temple, so let me make a guess.

     Usually speaking, #20 Henjo-ji Temple might have been located somewhere between #19 Myosho-in Temple (2 Chome−19−12 Irimacho, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0004) and #21 Amida-do Temple (6 Chome-12 Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0065).

     Nichiren (1222-1282)started his own Buddhist school, which was later called the Nichiren School after his Buddhist name, on April 28th, 1253.  As he accused other Buddhist sects and schools, his school was suppressed by Hojo Tokimune (1251-1284), the 8th Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate.  Some of his believers, who called him Soshi, namely Founding Teacher, escaped from the suppression, went upstream along the gorge of the Sen River, and developed the hills in its upper reaches.  They might have inhabited around a spring which is called Tsurigane-ike Pond today and built a hall to enshrine Soshi.  Shoshi-do Temple in Soshigaya today claims to be its successor and to be the origin of the place name.

     Eventually, the valley was called Shoshi-ga-ya, literally the Founding Teacher's Gorge.

     As Shoshigaya Village grew at the beginning of the Edo Period (1603-1867), Kami-Soshigaya Village became independent from Shshigaya Village in the further upper reaches of the Sen River.  The original village came to be called Shimo-Soshigaya.

     So, Henjo-in Temple could have been in Shimo-Soshigaya Village, and might have had something to do with the following shrine and religious monuments.  The temple might have been abolished with its Avalokitesvara statue after the Meiji Restoration.

     Shimo-Soshigaya is said to have 7 Koshin Stone Monuments, which were based on the Koshin folk faith in Japan. The faith is a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism, and Shinto. According to the faith, "Three Corpses" or "Three Worms" are demonic creatures that live inside the human body, and they seek to hasten the death of their host.  The Koshin monuments could have been built to prevent their activities.

Shimo-Soshigaya-shinmei-sha Shrine

Address: 5 Chome-1-7 Soshigaya, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0072

Phone: 03-3482-0128

Shimo-Soshigaya-Koshin-zuka

Address: 2 Chome-3-11 Soshigaya, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0072

Tsuriganeike Park

Address: 5 Chome-33-11 Soshigaya, Setagaya City, Tokyo 157-0072

Phone: 03-3417-9575

Soshi-do Temple

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

Phone: 03-5490-6415

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #19 Myosho-in Temple

 

     Tama County, Musashi Province, used to have many ancient burial mounds, which were built after the 4th century.  There used to be a community with pit dwellings in Irima Village from the 4th century to the 12th century.  Living in pit dwellings even in the 12th century seems way behind the times.  The community had a burial mound.  Kasumine Shrine used to be located at the foot of the mound.  It is unknown when the shrine was founded.  Sometime between 1532 and 1558, Myosho-in Temple was founded as its shrine temple  by Priest Shukai.

     Inaribo Sekizan (?-1735) ran a pawn shop in Yotsuya-Shio-machi, Edo.  One day, he got a combination of 3 Buddhist images unredeemed, and thought that he would get worldly profit by enshrining the combination in a temple.  He donated the statue to Myosho-in Temple in 1735.

     The combination of 3 Buddhist images became the main deity of the temple, which has Amitabha in the center, Avalokitesvara on the left, and Mahasthamaprapta on the right.  They represent a very rare style: to sit with their left foot treading.

     The temple’s thousand-armed 11-faced Ekadasamukha was believed to have manifested itself as the god of Kasumine in Japan.

     The temple was presented a thousand-armed thousand-eyed Sahasrabhuja statue in 1673.

     Myosho-in Temple is also the #18 of the Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Address: 2 Chome−19−12 Irimacho, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0004

Phone: 03-3300-8979

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Kinryu-ji Temple

 

     In the hill between Sen and No Rivers, there was a spring.  When people settled in the area, they felt thankful to the blessing of the spring water.  After Buddhism was introduced to Japan in 522, Sarasvati was also introduced.  They spread eastward.  When they reached the spring, people enshrined Sarasvati by the spring.

     In 1185, MinamotoYoshitsune (1159-1189) destroyed the Taira Clan, but he lost in infighting in the Minamoto Clan.  On his evacuation to Mutsu Province, he dropped in at the spring.  He copied 45 volumes of the Large Prajnaparamita Sutras in black ink with the spring water.  In 1206, 7 years after Yoshitsune was killed in Mutsu Province, Nanko-bo Temple was founded in the holy place.

     In 1594, 3 years after Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), who claimed to be the successor of the Minamot Clan, moved to Edo, Priest Shuei (?-1644) revived the temple and renamed it Kinryu-ji.  In 1649, Ieyasu's grandchild, Iemitsu (1604-1651), visited the temple and presented the field which could yield more than 1 ton of rice annually.  In 1665, the temple was moved to its present place.

     Sarasvati Shrine was renamed Itsukushima Shrine presumably after the Meiji Restoration in 1868.  In 1873, the shrine was registered with the name of Kaneko-Itsukushima Shrine.

Address: 2 Chome−14−1 Nishitsutsujigaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0006

Phone: 03-3300-5909

Kaneko-Itsukushima Shrine

Address: 1 Chome−15−8 Nishitsutsujigaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0006

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #17 Senju-in Temple

 

     It is unknown when Neno Shrine was founded in Gakuto Village, Tama County, Musashi Province.  Neno Shrines are distributed in Chiba, Saitama, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, and Yamanashi Prefectures alone.  It is also unknowable why they were named Neno, what their original deity used to be like, or whether they have any original shrine or not.   Some argue that Ne comes from Sleep, and others say it's from Mouse.  They are all forced analogies.

     It is unknown when Oyamakui God of Mishima Shrine in Izu Province was invited to Neno Shrine in Gakuto Village.  Other Neno Shrines invited other deities as they liked.  It is also unknown when its shrine temple, Senju-in, was founded.  The temple was revived by Priest Joyu (?-1688).  Although its main deity is Amitabha, the temple's name, Senju (namely Thousand Arms) is after its thousand-armed Sahasrabhuja statue.  Why?  It's unknowable again.

Address: 2 Chome-4-2 Higashinogawa, Komae, Tokyo 201-0002

Phone: 03-3489-8814

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #16 Seikyo-ji Temple

 

     After the collapse of the Kamakura Shogunate in 1333, 8 samurai left Kamakura and developed the wilds in Tama County, Musashi Province.  They founded a shrine and enshrined their 8 swords.  The shrine came to be called Yatsurugi, namely 8 Swords.  They didn't identify the shrine's deity.  Their offspring came to believe the shrine’s divinity came from Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.

     Seikyo-ji Temple was founded as its shrine temple presumably after the Tokugawa Shogunate ordered every citizen to be registered in a temple.

     Seikyo-ji Temple merged Tozen-ji Temple after World War II.

Address: 3 Chome−34−2 Kikunodai, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0007

Phone: 042-486-7676

Yatsurugi Shrine

Address: 3 Chome Kikunodai, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0007

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #15 Kosho-ji Temple

     Shibasaki Village in Tama County, Musashi Province, had its cemetery with a hut for a grave keeper, which was called Shibasaki-in.  The graveyard had old itabi dated 1261, 1343, 1360 and 1368.  Samurai in those days preferred itabi.

     Hojo Nagatoki (1230-1264) was the 6th Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate (1185-1333) from 1256 to 1264.  The shogunate was destroyed and the battles of the Northern and Southern Courts Period (1336-1392) divided Japan into 2.  Shibasaki Village belonged to the Northern Court.

     Shibasaki Shrine used to have its shrine temple, Sangai-ji Temple, which belonged to the Haguro Asceticism, which believed that Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, appeared in Japan as their god.  Sangai-ji Temple fell into ruin and Priest Jutetsu moved its main deity to the hut, changed it to a Pure-Land-Buddhism temple, and renamed it Kosho-ji.

Address: 1 Chome-38-2 Shibasaki, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0014

Phone: 042-482-1729

Shibasaki-Inari Shrine

Address: 2 Chome−11−4 Shibasaki, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0014

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #14 Hosho-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when and by whom Hosho-ji Temple was founded in Shimo-Fuda Village, Tama County, Musashi Province, on Koshu Highway.

     Shimo-Fuda has the Shimofuda Site, which is located on a river terrace of the Tama River. The surrounding area seems to have been densely populated during the Jomon Period (the 14th century BC-the 10th century BC).  The Shimo-Fuda Site is one of several sites forming a settlement belt along the river.  It is unknown when the area became under the rule of the Imperial Court based in the Kansai Region.  According to an Account of Ancient Matters, which is believed to have been compiled in the early 8th century, Yamatotakeru invaded the Kanto Region.  Yamatotakeru is a legendary great grandfather of Emperor Osazagi, who is considered to have been the earliest real-life king in Japan, and who reigned sometime between 300 and 538.  The five kings of Wa, kings of ancient Japan, who were mentioned in the Book of Song, which is a historical text of the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties of China, and which covers history from 420 to 479, sent envoys to China during the 5th century to strengthen the legitimacy of their claims to power by gaining the recognition of the Chinese emperor.  Emperor Osazaki is considered to have been one of the five or one of their ancestors.  The Imperial Court sent the captured and refugees from the Korean Peninsula to the Kanto Region.  The first written document of those dates back to 601, when Gamata, a Silla spy, was caught and banished to Kozuke Province. 

     Why did the Imperial Court send them to the Kanto Region?  10 generations after Emperor Osazaki, when Emperor Ohodo (507-531) reigned as the first emperor whose birth year and death years can be identified, Iwai, the head of a powerful family in Tsukushi Province, blocked the Japanese army's advance to the Korean Peninsula in 527.  That was what the Imperial Court was afraid of.

     It might have been those naturalized Baekje and Silla people that started the textile industry around Fuda or Chofu in ancient times.  The Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, which was compiled sometime after 759, contains a tanka poem, "A girl soaks her hand-woven cloth elegantly in Tama River.  So elegant is she!"

     Anyway, the Fuda area must have had its holy place or graveyard far before historic times.

     In 1915, Hosho-ji Temple was merged with Eiho-ji Temple, whose main hall was moved to its present place and became Taisho-ji Temple's main hall, and Fudo-in Temple, whose main hall was moved to its present place and became Taosho-ji Temple's Kannon-do Hall, to form Taisho-ji Temple.  Only Hosho-ji Temple left nothing for Taisho-ji Temple.

Taisho-ji Temple

Address: 1 Chome−22−1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0021

Phone: 042-482-2370

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #13 Josho-ji Temple

 

     Josho-ji Temple was founded on Tama River in the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), and was moved to its present place after Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved to Edo in 1590.  Its precincts have the horse-headed Hayagriva statue, which had been carved in 1824 and which used to be enshrined in a burial ground for horses nearby.

Addrss: 1 Chome-2-8 Kokuryocho, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0022

Phone: 042-482-8013

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #12 Gion-ji Temple

 

     Priest Mangon, who founded Jindai-ji Temple, changed the residence of his maternal grandparents into a temple and named it Gion-ji in 750.  Its precincts have the graves of the Onjeong Family.

Address: 2 Chome−18−1 Sazumachi, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0016

Phone: 042-484-0811

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Tamon-in Temple

 

     Tamon-in Temple was founded as a branch temple of Jindai-ji Temple and was abolished in 1868, only with its Vaisravana statue in Jindai-ji Temple and with the place name Tamon'in-zaka Hill as its traces.  In Chofu City, the statue is the only one that was carved before 1185, when Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) established the Kamakura Shogunate.

     On the site of Tamon-in Temple, Jindaiji Elementary School was built.

Tamon’in-zaka

Address: 2 Chome−37−4 Jindaiji Motomachi, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0017

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #10 Jindai-ji Temple

 

     Jindai-ji Temple was founded in 733 by Priest Mangon as a temple of East Asian Yogacara.  It is the second oldest temple in Tokyo Prefecture after Senso-ji Temple, which was founded in 628.  Jindai-ji Temple was named after the legend of Xuanzang (602–664).

     When Xuanzang was traveling to India to bring over 657 Buddhist scriptures back to China, a water god, Shensha the Great, appeared from the depth of sand and guarded Xuanzang.  The Chinese characters of Shen and Great can be pronounced Jin and Da in Japanese.

     Who was Mangong?

     Hukuman of Kaneko Village fell in love with a daughter of Onjeong Ugeun, the head of Sasu Village, and his wife, Holang-i.  Ugeun and Holang-i were sad with that, and hid their daughter in an isle in a lake.  Hukuman remembered Xuanzang's legend and prayed to Shensha.  The god sent a holy turtle to him.  He visited his love on the back of the turtle.  Hearing the strange but good incident, Mr. and Mrs. Onjeong let the two get married.  Later, the daughter gave birth to Mangong. 

     In 859, Jindai-ji Temple was transferred to the Tiantai Lotus School.

Address: 5 Chome−15−1 Jindaiji Motomachi, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0017

Phone: 042-486-5511

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #9 Ikegami-in Temple

 

     Ikegami-in Temple was founded as a branch temple of Jindai-ji Temple in its precincts.  It is unknown when Ikegami-in Temple was founded.  Today, the temple stands in front of the temple gate of Jindai-ji Temple, and is a training center for nuns.

Address: 2 Chome−12−1 Jindaiji Motomachi, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0017

Phone: 042-483-1453

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Eiho-ji Temple

 

     Eiho-ji Temple used to be a shrine temple of Fudaten Shrine nearby, which was founded in the 8th or 9th century.  Fudaten literally means Cloth Plenty Heaven.  The city name Chofu itself means Tax Cloth.  The name Chofu dates back to the Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, which was compiled sometime after AD 759

     In 840, the third official history book, Nihon Koki, was compiled, which covered the years 792-833.  Its volume 8 had an entry about a drifted alien:

     "In July, Autumn, 799, one man on a small boat drifted ashore in Mikawa Province.  He wore a full-length cloth, a loincloth, but not trousers.  He covered his left shoulder with a piece of dark blue cloth, which looked like a Buddhist priest’s sash.  He was about 20 years old, was about 167 centimeters tall, and had 10-centimeter-long ears.  We couldn’t understand his language, nor could we identify his nationality.  When Chinese people saw him, they said he was a Kunlun man.  Later, he mastered Japanese, and said he was from India.  He was always playing a one-string harp.  His singing voice was always melancholy and sorrowful.  When we checked his belongings, we found something like grass seeds.  He said they were cotton seeds.”

     In those days, Chinese called those from South-East Asia as Kunlun people.  The man might have been blown eastward somewhere in South China Sea, and washed on the Black Current as far as off Mikawa Province.

     The Kunlun man taught Japanese people how to grow cotton plants, and they made it, just for a year.  It was after the 16th century that Japanese people succeeded in growing cotton plants serially.  Until then, cotton cloth was a luxury imported goods from China and Korea.

     According to tradition, it was a farmer along Tama River who first succeeded in weaving cotton cloth in Japan.  Consequently, the area came to be called Chofu, namely Tax Cloth, if you believe it.

     The oldest record of trading cotton seeds in Musashi Province dates back to 1521, and that of cotton cloth back to 1571.  In 1574, Hojo Ujikuni (1541-1597) made a military rule to provide foot soldiers cotton clothes.  That implies the spread of the cotton cloth.

     Priest Yuyo organized Eiho-ji Temple into the Shingon Sect.

     In 1915, Eiho-ji, Hosho-ji, and Fudo-in Temples merged to form Taisho-ji Temple.

Taisho-ji Temple

Address: 1 Chome−22−1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0021

Phone: 042-482-2370

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #7 Jizo-do Hall

 

     It is unknown when and by whom Fudo-in Temple was founded in Kojima Village, Tama County, Musashi Province.  As the temple's  written records list Priest Genshun (?-1590), it might have been founded before the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan in 1590.  Its Acalanatha statue is said to have been carved by Roben (689-773), who established Todai-ji Temple in Nara.

     In 1915, Eiho-ji, Hosho-ji, and Fudo-in Temples merged to form Taisho-ji Temple.

     If you want the hall's temple-name card, you should ask at the Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Taisho-ji Temple.

     Jizo-do Temple is also the #20 member temple of the Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Address: 1 Chome−18 Kojimacho, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0026

Taisho-ji Temple

Address: 1 Chome−22−1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0021

Phone: 042-482-2370

Trees In the Town

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #6 Joen-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when and by whom Joen-ji Temple was founded.  The Priest Ryoken (?-1679) revived it.

     Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, all the domain governments were to register their people.  In 1664, the shogunate further ordered to add information on people's religions.  The registration system was completed in 1671.

     Tightening control over people’s religions meant an opportunity for authorized Buddhist sects and schools to increase the number of their branch temples.  Ryoken took the opportunity and revived Joen-ji Temple on one of those days.

     The Vajrapani statue is enshrined in the precincts.  The statue was brought from Kannonkyo-ji Temple (Address: 298 Shibayama, Sambu District, Chiba 289-1619, Phone: 0479-77-0004), and is said to have been carved by Visvakarman, who is a craftsman deity and the divine architect of the devas in contemporary Hinduism.

     The precincts also have the statue of Monk Tansho (1810-?), who was born in Utsunomiya and advocated for Kosho-nenbutsu in the area.  In Kosho-nenbutsu, they loudly chant a prayer to Buddha, striking a Buddhist wooden drum.   When they strike a drum, they raise a stick over their head, and strike the drum with all their might.  They keep chanting for an hour.  Kosho-nenbutsu’s center is Shinsho-ji Temple at Misaki, Isumi County, Chiba Prefecture.  The performance was first propagated to Shindai-ji Temple in Chofu City today.

     Joen-ji Temple is also the #17 member temple of the Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Address: 1 Chome−52−4 Shimoishiwara, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0034

Phone: 042-482-3611

Trees In the Town

 Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #5 Gensho-ji Temple

     Gensho-ji Temple was founded by Nanjusen (?-1543) and was financially supported by Ota Morihisa (?-1579), who was an illegitimate child of Ota Suketada (?-1479).

     Ota Suketada (?-1479) was a younger brother of Dokan (1432-1486), who built Edo Castle.  When Suketada was staying in Ishihara Village, he got a village woman pregnant.  She gave birth to a boy, and the boy called himself Ota Morihisa.  Oral tradition says that he died in 1579 at the age of 120.  That’s unbelievable.  It seems his offspring called themselves Ota Morihisa for a couple of generations.  When Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) was compiling the New Topography and Chronology on Musashi Province  at the beginning of the 19th century, Morihisa’s descendant, Zen’emon, was the head of the village.  Ota Morihisa might have given up being a samurai.

     Gensho-ji Temple is also the #32 member temple of the Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Address: 1 Chome−36−1 Shimoishiwara, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0034

Phone: 042-482-5246

Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #4 Saiko-ji Temple

 

     Hase-zan Shoten-in Saiko-ji Temple used to be called just Shoten-in, which was a training center for Japanese mountain ascetics.  It can date back at least to 1427.  Priest Benjo (?-1673) transferred the temple to the Tiantai Sect.  Benjo was the 57th head priest of Shindai-ji Temple.

     The graveyard has 3 old itabi.

     The oldest itabi was built sometime between 1342 and 1345.  Ko Morofuyu (?-1351) assumed the Kanto Butler of the Ashikaga Shogunate and started suppressing the Southern-Court samurai in the Kanto Region in 1338, and brought the region under control by 1343.  The samurai buried under the itabi might have been killed in one of the related battles.

     The second oldest one was built sometime between 1492 and 1501, and the newest one was built sometime between 1504 and 1521.

     In 1488, the full-scale military conflict between the Yamauchi-Uesugi and Ogigayatsu-Uesugi Clans started.  The Uesugi Clan at large had exclusively produced the Regents of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate.  By 1480’s, their power had exceeded the Kanto Deputy Shogun.  The hegemony they had achieved, ironically enough, split the clan themselves.  To make the matter more complicated, Ise Shinkuro (1432-1519) invaded Izu Province to become a Warring-States-Period hero in 1493.  By that time, Ogigayatsu-Uesugi Clan became inferior to Yamanouchi-Uesugi Clan, and invited Shinkuro to Sagami and Musashi Provinces to fight together.  In 1504, even the Imagawa Clan in Suruga Province entered the war, and blah blah blah.  The newer two were built, in short, at the beginning of the Warring States Period.

     Kondo Isami (1834-1868) was born in Kamiishiwara Village, Musashi Province.  He fought for the Tokugawa Shogunate, and killed many loyalists of the Meiji Restoration Period.  After the collapse of the shogunate, Isami was accused of the murder of Sakamoto Ryoma (1835-1867) and was beheaded on May 17, 1868.  After his execution, his headless body was brought over to Ryugenji Temple at today’s Osawa, Mitaka City, Tokyo Prefecture, by his nephew, Miyagawa Yugoro (1851-1933), and was buried there with his family.  His head was exposed to the public in Kyoto and was buried in Hozo-ji Temple at Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture.  In Saiko-ji Temple, his cenotaph sitting image was built.

     Saiko-ji Temple is also the #3 member temple of the Tama River 34 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Address: 1 Chome−28−3 Kamiishiwara, Chofu, Tokyo 182-0035

Phone: 042-482-3320