Virtual Akigawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #12 Zuiun-ji Temple

 

     Hojo Moritoki (1295-1333) was the 16th and last Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate.  Moritoki's sister, Nariko (1306-1365) was married to Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), who later destroyed the Kamakura Shogunate and became the first Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate.  When Takauji's friendly army invaded Kamakura, Nariko escaped with their boy, Yoshiakira (1330-1367), but Moritoki killed himself, and his son, Masutoki (?-1333), was said to have killed himself too.  When Kamakura fell, Moritoki’s wife (?-1371) escaped, built a hermitage to pray for the comfort of her husband and son in the other world, became a nun, and called herself Zuiun, nominally Following Clouds.  She also brought Moritoki's personal guardian Buddhist image of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  The image was said to have been carved by Kukai (774-835).  Later, Priest Fukuan Soki (1280-1358) was nominally invited from Houn-ji Temple (Address: 1890 Takaoka, Tsuchiura, Ibaraki 300-4117) in Hitachi Province.  Soki had studied from Zhongfeng Mingben (1263-1323) in China under the Yuan Dynasty.  Soki engraved the characters Zui Un and An on the nameplate of the hermitage.

     Priest Shoko (1324-1395) became the second priest of Zuiun-ji Temple.  He was said to be a second son of an Ashikaga.  Did Moritoki's wife escape with their second son?  Or was Shoko actually Masutoki, who didn't kill himself and survive?  Was it Nariko that sheltered them and who invited Soki?

     Zuiun-ji Temple enshrines the Buddhist tablets of Ashikaga Takauji, Motouji, and Ujimitsu (1359-1398), the second Kant Deputy Shogun, as if to show off the blood relationship with the Ashikaga Clan, or as if to guard the temple and its residents.

     The hermitage was changed into a temple and renamed Zuiun-ji, with the character An on its name plate chiseled out and the character Ji engraved there.

Address: 496-1 Yamada, Akiruno, Tokyo 190-0144

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