Fushimi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in My Order (1)

 

     I stepped out of the South Gate of Keihan Tambabashi Station westward.  After a couple of blocks, I turned right and then left into Tambabashi Street.  There stood Shonen-ji Temple on my left.

The Fushimi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #21 Shonen-ji Temple

     Shonen-ji Temple was founded by Priest Teian in 1587.  The temple is known for its 3 deities.

A Statue of Emma, a Great King of the Buddhist Hades

     In the Tale of Heike Volume 6 Chapter 9, Priest Sonei was working for Seicho-ji Temple in Settsu Province.  On December 25th, 1172, Sonei visited the Buddhist Hades to participate in the Buddhist rally hosted by the Great King, Emma.  On the 26th, he came back to life and returned to this world with a wooden statue of Emma in his hand, which had been carved out of pine wood by Emma himself.  Unlike other statues of Emma, it looks very merciful.  Mercy and pity might be Emma’s true intentions.  The adventure of the priest is narrated in minute detail in the Tale of Heike.

     Later, Sonei visited Ise Shrine, and died at Ueno, Iga Province, on his way back.  Before his death, he put the Emma statue at the Ten-King Temple there and recited sutras in front of it.  Ten-King temples enshrine 10 kings in hades: King Shinko, King Shoko, King Sotei, King Gokan, King Emma, King Henjo, King Taizen, King Byodo, King Toshi, and King Godotenrin.

     Centuries later, when Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) held falconry in Ueno, he found the statue and brought it back.  According to the Chronicle of Oda Nobunaga, compiled in Edo period based on records by Ota Gyuichi (1527–1614), a warrior who followed Nobunaga, Nobunaga’s army suppressed Iga Province on September 11th,1581, and Nobunaga himself visited the province from October 9th to 12th.

     Priest Teian was born on March 7, 1539, in Kuronuma Village, Miura County, Sagami Province, as a son of Oe Masatoki.  His mother, Nowaki, died when he was 4 years old, and his father was killed in battle next year.  He was raised by Nowaki’s sister for a while, but sent to Dairen-ji Temple in Odawara at the age of 7.  He shaved his head at the age of 11.  He studied under Priest Gyoshin.  When Gyoshin moved to Gugyo-ji Temple in Hitachi Province, he followed the priest.  In 1573, he became the head priest of the temple.  He happened to visit Saiko-ji Temple in Nanao, Noto Province, when Nagao Kagetora (1530-1578) started invading Noto Province.  Teian fled to Tae-Kongo-ji Temple in Iba, Omi Province, in 1576.  Meanwhile, Gugyo-ji Temple was burnt down in the other flames of war in 1577.  In 1579, he took part in the Azuchi Religious Debate, which was hosted by Nobunaga, the ruler of Japan at the time, as one of the 4 members of one side.  His team won in a spectacular fashion, and he won the trust of Nobunaga.  He was given an estate in Azuchi, and established another Saiko-ji Temple there.  On one of those days, Nobunaga gave Teian the Emma statue.

     Nobunaga was, however, killed in 1582.  In 1583, Teian moved to Kyoto.  Somehow or other, he was invited by Emperor Ogimachi (1517-1593) in 1585 to lecture on the Senchaku Hongan Nembutsushu, which is the magnum opus of Honen (1133-1212).  Honen was the founder of the Pure Land Sect in Japan.  He preached a sermon in the Imperial Palace next year.  In 1587, the emperor  gave the palace where Nobunaga’s eldest son, Nobutada (1557-1582), had committed hara-kiri suicide in 1582 to establish Daiun-in Temple.  Teian also founded Shonen-ji Temple at the foot of Fushimi Castle, from where Toyotomi Hideyoshi was going to rule Japan.

     In 1615, Teian died, when the Tokugawa Clan wiped out the Toyotomi Clan.  How many times did Teian virtually stand by the gate of the hades?  How many times did he almost see Emma?  Did Emma look as merciful and pitiful as the statue he had?

Migawari Kamashiki Jizo Statue

     Migawari Kamashiki Jizo Statue, namely Substitute Jizo Statue on a Pot, is the guardian of those suffering from being boiled in the pots of hades.  The Buddhist Hades have 8 strata.  In the 4th stratum, people are boiled in a big pot.  Kamashiki Jizo substitutes for them, gets into the pot for them, and heals them of their torment.    

Arya Tara Statue

     Arya Tara, or Tara Bosatsu in Japanese, was born from the tears of Avalokiteshvara.  "Myriad beings were undergoing the agonies of boiling, burning, hunger, thirst, yet they never perished, sending forth hideous cries of anguish all the while.  When Avalokiteshvara saw this, tears sprang to his eyes.  A teardrop from his right eye fell to the plain and became" White Tara, and "A teardrop from his left eye fell upon the plain and became" Green Tara.  The gilt copper statue in Shonen-ji Temple is said to be Green Tara, which belongs to Tibetan Buddhism, and which might have been made somewhere in the northern part of the Indian Subcontinent.  In Tibet, Green Tara is believed to have manifested herself as the Nepalese Princess, Bhrikuti.  Was the statue molded in Nepal?  It could have been shipped to Sakai.  And somehow or other, Nobunaga got it.  He gave the statue to Priest Teian.  In Japan, there used to be a prejudice against women that women couldn't rest in peace even in the next world.  This type of feminine Buddhist statue gave great relief to discriminated female Buddhists.  

Address: 521 Ishiyacho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, 612-8319

Phone: 075-611-1606

     I continued to walk along Tambabashi Street westward, and crossed the Tamba-bashi Bridge across Hori-kawa River.  Hori means a moat, which runs through the township of Fushimi.  As such, the river bends ninety degrees along blocks.

     After a couple of blocks, I found Daiei-ji Temple on my right.

The Fushimi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Daiei-ji Temple

     The Great Tenmei Famine began in 1782, and lasted until 1788.  In the 1770’s, there was a sharp decline in crop yield in Mutsu Province, which was the north-eastern region of Honshu Island.  To make the situation worse, Mt. Iwaki erupted on March 12th, 1783, and Mt. Asama on July 6th.  Another cause of the famine was the government's economic policies.  In the first half of the 18th century, the Tokugawa Shogunate raised taxes which were paid by rice.  The tax increase not only exhausted farmers and peasants but also caused rice planting to move northward.  All in all, the farmers and peasants in the northern provinces became vulnerable to cold weather and natural disasters.  In the 1750’s, the shogunate implemented a mercantilist policy to further increase tax revenue.  This was intended to raise taxes from commerce and business, but, as taxes were basically paid in rice, caused rice prices to soar.  Many domains tried to increase their rice-planted acreage and even sold local emergency stores of rice.  The climatic, volcanic, and economic factors combined to result in poor harvests and serious famine expanded to a national scale as a result.  Twenty thousand people were estimated to have starved to death, mainly in rural areas of the Tohoku Region.  However, many local authorities were afraid of being accused of economic mismanagement, and did not report the full extent of the damage, so the actual death toll may have been far higher.  The combined impact of famine and outbreaks of disease resulted in a population decline of more than 920,000 people across Japan between 1780 and 1786.

     Kobori Masamichi (1742-1803), who was the lord of the Komuro Domain in Asai County, Omi Province, became the Magistrate of Fushimi in 1778.  To resolve the fiscal deficit of the domain caused by his extravagance, he illegally levied extra taxes in Fushimi.  The Great Tenmei Famine made his fiscal deficit more serious, and his illegal tax increase amounted to 5,500 million yen by the criterion of the price of rice, 38,500 million yen by the criterion of the wage of a carpenter, or 20,900 million yen by the criterion of the price of buckwheat.

     In 1785, the Fushimi people resisted Masamichi's cruel and merciless politics.  The 7 leaders of the resistance, Monju Kusuke (1725-1788), Kojiya Dembe (?-1785), Fushimiya Seizaemon, Shibaya Ihe, Itaya Ichiemon, and Yakishioya Gombe, visited Edo, handed their petition to the Supervisor of Temples and Shrines, Matsudaira Suketsugu (1749-1800).  They were arrested instantly.  After their severe interrogation, Masamichi was dismissed at the cost of  the 7 leaders’ dying of illness in prison one after another.

     As the omen of the incident, Masamichi's doctor, Mizushima Koan, made a bitter and ironical remark in remonstrance.  One day, Masamichi got a small fish bone stuck in his throat, and Koan successfully took it away.  When Masamichi asked Koan what he wanted as a reward, Koan asked for a hermitage with bamboo pillars and heavy tile roofs.  Masamichi made a fool of how unstable and uncertain the hermitage would be.  In reply, Koan criticized how unstable and uncertain Masamichi's politics was.  Koan was ordered to confine himself to his house, and killed himself on May 25th, 1781.  He was buried in Daiei-ji Temple.

     According to the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Buddha was cremated and his ashes were lodged in the 13-storied pagoda.  The 13-storied pagoda consisted of the base, the core of the pagoda, 13 roofs, and a spire on the top of them.  The precincts of Daiei-ji Temple keeps a core part of a 13-storied pagoda, which is said to have been constructed in the 13th century in Momoyama Hill, where Fushimi Castle was built at the end of the 16th century.  The core has 4 sides with the images of Amitabha,  Bhaisajyaguru, Gautama Siddhartha, and Maitreya engraved.  It is said the core was moved to the temple after the castle was burned down in the preliminary encounter of the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.

Address: 1032 Higashidaikokuchō, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, 612-8336

Phone: 075-611-5012

     After Daiei-ji Temple, I wandered around the block, which used to be an industrial area.  Although most of the area has become a residential zone, I found Shotoku Sake Brewery and Asada Japanese Tile Factory, which manufacture the images of Shoki.

     The block was just on Higashi-Takase-gawa River.  I walked southward another block along the river, and turned left to visit the next temple.  Before I crossed the Hori-kawa River again, I found Hibi Sake Brewery, which wasn’t open yet.

     I walked eastward a couple of blocks and found Saiko-ji Temple.

The Fushimi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Saiko-ji Temple

     Unlike other temples in sightseeing areas in Kyoto, Saiko-ji Temple stood in its neighborhood shyly without appealing its history or benefit.

Address: 391 Higomachi, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, 612-8352

Phone: 075-601-2067

     I continued to walk eastward to find Daikoku-ji Temple

The Fushimi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #19 Daikoku-ji Temple

     Chofuku-ji Temple was said to have been founded either by Kukai (774-835) or Shinnyo (799-865) as a Shingon Sect temple.

     In 1615, Shimazu Yoshihiro (1535-1619), the lord of the Satsuma Domain, requested the Fushimi Magistrate, Yamaguchi Naotomo (1544-1622), to make this temple, which was near the Satsuma Domain's residence, a prayer place for the domain.  It was named Daikoku-ji after the Japanese name of Mahakala as the principal image of the domain was Mahakala.  As such, the temple was generally called Satsuma-dera.  The roof tiles are decorated with a circle and a cross, which is the family crest of the Shimazu Clan.

     During the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, secret meetings of anti-shogunate samurai were often held in the temple.  Nine martyrs of the Teradaya Incident were also buried in its precincts, and their relics, writings, and poems are still kept in the temple.  

There is a legend that a ghost parented her baby with candy.  The ghost is Yashiro Mitsume, a sister-in-law of Tajiri Inajiro (1825-1923), and her mortuary tablet is enshrined in the temple.

     There is a candy store Minatoya Yurei Kosodate Ame Honpo near Rokudo no Tsuji in Matsubara-dori, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City.  Rokudo no Tsuji is the entrance to Toribeno, one of Kyoto's funeral sites.  Minatoya sells nursing-ghost candy even today.

     In 1899, Mitsume died and was buried, and a few days later a baby's cry was heard from the soil.  They dug it up, a newborn baby to a deceased woman.  Previously, there was a woman who came to buy candy every night, but after her child was rescued from the grave, she stopped coming to buy it, so this candy came to be called nursing-ghost candy.

Address: 4 Takajocho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, 612-8062

Phone: 075-611-2558

     I walked north-east along the streets in a grid pattern, as often is the case in Kyoto.  It means I was walking back to Tambabashi Station.  On my way back to the station, I found today’s last destination, Genchu-ji Temple

The Fushimi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Genchu-ji Temple

     At the beginning of the 17th century, Yodogawa Magistrate raised the tolls for boats and ships which came and went through Yodo River.  People in Fushimi suffered from the hike.  Kobayashi Kanji (?-1618), a firewood merchant who came from Tamba Province, made a direct appeal to the Tokugawa Shogunate out of his sense of righteous indignation.  Thanks to his appeal, the shogunate authorities published the order to lower the tolls.  On his way back from Edo, he was assassinated at Mariko-juku Station along the Eastern Ocean Road.  Kanji, however, had foreseen the fatal incident and hidden the order in the body of a fish, which was safely brought to Fushimi by his comrade and became effective.  His grave and the monument in honor of his contribution and wisdom are still silently yet bravely standing in Genchu-ji Temple. 

Address: 575 Shimoitabashicho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, 612-8073

Phone: 0756011809

     I called it a day, realizing the pilgrimage was good camouflage for ordinary people to commemorate and honor those who sacrificed themselves for their benefit under the tyranny and oppression of samurai.