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