Virtual Akigawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #17 Jisho-ji Temple

 

     Hatakeyama Shigetada  (1164-1205) founded Jisho-ji Temple for his aunt, Enjuin, in 1188.

     Hatakeyama Shigehiro's daughter was married to Chiba Tsunetane (1118-1201).  She gave birth to Tanemasa (1137-1203), Morotane (1139-1205), Tanemori (1146-1215), Tanenobu (?-1215), and Tanemichi.  Tsunetane had 2 more sons: Taneyori (1155-1228) and Nichiin (?-1180).

     In October, 1124, Chiba Tsuneshige (1083-1180) became the governor of Soma County.  On June 11th, 1130, he donated Soma Manor to Ise Shrine.  According to its contract, he contributed 27 liters of rice per 100 square meters of paddy field and 9 liters of rice per 100 square meters  of dry field.  Tsuneshige was also allowed, as a matter of course, to raise back taxes.  The reality was that Tsuneshige actually owned the manor, and he evaded paying taxes by accepting the name lending of Ise Shrine and paying commissions to its Shinto priests.  The donation was approved by the provincial governor, Fujiwara Chikamitsu, in August of the same year.

     This world was filled with greedy and acquisitive people, of course including Tsuneshige himself.  Tsuneshige didn’t pay taxes from central-government-owned farm land, and was arrested by Chikamitsu on July 15th, 1136.  Chikamitsu seized Soma and Tachibana Manors, and, quite unexpectedly (or expectedly?), appropriated the manors.  In 1143, Minamoto Yoshitomo (1123-1160), who was behaving like a gangster in the Kanto Region at the time and who happened to stay in Kazusa Province to know the trouble, had a hand in the case.

     Tsuneshige’s son, Tsunetane (1118-1201), fought back.  By paying arrears, he got back Soma Manor in April, 1146.  On August 10th, he successfully "donated” the manor to Ise Shrine.

     Through those days, through thick and thin, Tsunetane's wife, or Shigehiro's daughter, gave birth to Tanemasa (1137-1203), Morotane (1139-1205), Tanemori (1146-1215), Tanenobu (?-1215), and Tanemichi.

     One day, all of a sudden, presumably in the 1150's, Tsunetane's wife, or Shigehiro's daughter, stopped being a wife and a mother, and retired to Nishigayato, Komiya Village, Tama County, Musashi Province.  What happened?  Tsunetane had a lover, who gave birth to Taneyori and Nichiin.

     All of a sudden, in January, 1161, Satake Yoshimune donated Soma Manor to Ise Shrine too.  He had robbed Chikamatsu’s son, Chikamori, of the deed which Chikamatsu had drawn.  On June 14th, 1167, reconciliation was offered in Yoshimune’s favor.

     Tsunetane reached a deadlock, but heaven helped him.  In 1180, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) raised an army to overthrow the central ancient aristocratic government and to become the ruler of Japan as a samurai.  Tsunetane jumped on the bandwagon successfully.

Even after Tsunetane's success in the Kamakura Shogunate, his wife (or ex-wife) kept living in a hermitage in Nishigayato.  One day, Shigehiro's grandson, Shigetada (1164-1205), passed by Nishigayato on his way from his hometown, Hatakeyama Village, Obusuma County, Musashi Province, to Kamakura, and met Tsunetane’s wife (or ex-wife), or Shigetada’s aunt.  He, later, founded Jisho-ji Temple in Higashigayato, the temple's present place, changed her personal guardian Buddhist image, Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, into the temple's main deity, and let her live there.  She died on July 18th, 1194.

     In 1505, Priest Santoku (?-1521) revived the temple.

     When Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) invaded the Kanto Region to destroy the Later Hojo Clan, Maeda Toshiie(1538-1599) and Uesugi Kagekatsu (1555-1623) set fire to the temple, which lost its documents in the fire.

Address: 1811 Kusabana, Akiruno, Tokyo 197-0802

Phone: 042-558-1171