Virtual Akigawa 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #5 Gyokurin-ji Temple

 

     Gyokurin-ji Temple was founded by Priest Saitetsu (?-1347) in 1339.  It was revived, maintained, and supported by Hirayama Ujishige (?-1590).  Who was Ujishige?

     The most part of Musashi Province was plateaus deeply covered with volcanic-ash soil, which was suitable for stock farming, not for rice growing.  In ancient times, many of the naturalized Silla people then were sent to Musashi Province, and engaged in the stock farming.  That stimulated people there, and many stock farms were set up, including 6 imperial stock farms.  The custodians of those farms later formed small-scale samurai families.  By marriage, those samurai families composed 7 corps on the plateaus in the province: the Musashi Seven Corps.    The Nishi Corps, who were based in the Tama River Valley, was one of the 7.

     In Ancient times, Funakida Manor was developed along Asa River, which is a branch of Tama River.  The manor belonged to the Fujiwara Clan in Kyoto.  A family based around the meeting point of the Asa and Tama Rivers in the manor became powerful, called themselves Hirayama, and came to belong to the Nishi Corps.

     The Hirayama Family advanced to the upper reaches of the river, conquering the mountain people there and developing rice fields on the fluvial terraces along the Asa River.  Gradually, they became samurai as other members of the Musashi Seven Corps did.

     At the end of the ancient times, the Taira Clan, one of samurai clans, overpowered the Fujiwara Clan.  Hirayama Sueshige (1140-1212) fought for Minamoto Yoshitomo (1123-!160) in the Hogen War in 1156, and in the Heiji War in 1159.  After Yoshitomo was defeated and killed by the Taira Clan.  He followed the Taira Clan and lived a peaceful life as a local samurai.  However, when Yoshitomo's son, Yoritomo (1147-1199), who had been exiled to Izu Province, raised an army in 1180, Sueshige fought for Yoritomo.  When Yoritomo dispatched his younger brother, Yoshitsune (1159-1189), to Kyoto to hunt down the Taira Clan, he followed Yoshitsune and achieved outstanding military service in 1184 and 1185.

     After the war, Sueshige was given a government post by the Cloistered Emperor Goshirakawa (1127-1192).  As Sueshige was appointed without permission of Yoritomo, he got angry.  Yoritomo criticized Sueshige along with other samurai who were appointed without Yoritomo’s permission, saying, “Hirayama Sueshige has a fluffy face and got an outrageous appointment.”  In spite of giving up his government post, he was appointed by Yoritomo as the steward of Harada Manor, Mikasa County, Chikuzen Province.

     In 1189, Sueshige participated in the Battle of Mutsu with his son, Shigemura.  He did a distinguished war service there and became a senior statesman of the Kamakura Shogunate.

     During the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), the Hirayama Family survived the conspiracy of the Hojo Clan, and kept advancing to the upper reaches of the Asa River.  A couple of centuries later, Hirayama Masayasu was ordered by Ashikaga Morouji (1340-1367), the first Kanto Deputy Shogun under the Ashikaga Shogunate, to build Hinohara Fortress where Asa River flows out of a gorge into a valley.  All in all, Ujishige might have been Masayasu’s father.

     With the fortress as their base, the Hirayama Family survived the Warring States Period (1467-1568).  Hirayama Ujishige’s support to Gyokurin-ji Temple suggests that they had advanced even to the basin of Aki River.  Their success was, however, the mother of their failure.  When Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) invaded the Kanto Region in 1590, Ujishige confined his family and his army to Hinohara Fortress, which didn’t hold a day.  He and his son killed themselves in Senzoku, Hinohara Village, on July 12th.  Some family members who survived became farmers.

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