Virtual Akigawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #4 Sairen-ji Temple

 

     Sairen-ji Temple is supposed to have been located along Bonbori River, which flows into Aki River.  It was a branch temple of the Akigawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #21 Daihigan-ji Temple.

     According to the Soto Nikki or the Soto Chronology, when the Musashi Tama 88 Pilgrimage was organized as a copy of the Shikoku Pilgrimage in 1823, Sairen-ji Temple was its #5 member temple. 

     Shiono Tekisai (1775-1847) compiled the Soto Chronology in 1827.  Soto is a nickname of Hachioji.  The history book is mostly about the Hachioji Corps of the Thousand, which was organized with the ex-vassals of the Takeda Clan by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) when he moved to Edo after the collapse of the Later Hojo Clan in 1590.

     When Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) invaded the Kanto Region, Hachioji Castle was guarded by a local garrison, with farmers including women and children, about 3,000 in all.  Hideyoshi’s allies from the Hokuriku Region, the armies of the Maeda and Uesugi Clans, flooded to Hachioji Castle with a force 15,000 strong on June 23rd.  The garrison fought back briefly, gave up, and killed themselves. The women and children either committed suicide by the sword or threw themselves into the nearby waterfall, Goshuden Fall.  The stream turned red for 3 days.  The Hokuriku armies beheaded the garrison, women, and children to display their heads in front of Odawara Castle, the stronghold of the Later Hojo Clan, which fell on July 5th.  Ieyasu simply made up for the vacuum of the population in Hachioji with the ex-vassals of the Takeda Clan.

     Tekisai wrote Hachioji's history form 1582 to 1842.  On March 11th, 1582, the Takeda Clan was destroyed.  As he himself was one of the leaders of the Hachioji Corps of the Thousand, he wrote about his ancestors' exodus from Kai Province and their settlement in Hachioji.

     The temple is supposed to have been abolished after the Meiji Restoration.