Virtual Tama Aqueduct Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #32 Omiya-ji Temple

 

     There used to be an Osonoi Village around Osonoi Pond.  A well was the head of the brook which flew into the pond.  Osonoi’s "i" meant a water spring, and "Osono" meant either Oso's or Oso Field.  It's untraceable what Oso originally meant.

     The volume of water of the Osonoi Spring is large enough to support the park around Zenpukuji Pond.  The coppices of the park remind us of the Musashino Plateau of the past years, and have many birds and flowers.  From the pond, the Zenpukuji River flows out and pours down into lowlands under the plateau.  There, the river meanders, forms a couple of ponds, and causes floods occasionally.  On September 4th, 2005, for example, it rained 112 millimeters per hour, and 1,659 houses were flooded.

     About 5 kilometers down the river from the pond, a square-type burial mound with a moat around it was built.  The Omiya Site, the site of religious services, was excavated on the north-facing cliff of the Zenpukuji River near the mound.  A village is supposed to have been formed on the south-facing side of the valley as early as 8 thousand years ago.  Villagers might have done hunting and gathering as Jomon people did on the plateau and grown rice at the bottom of the valley as Yayoi people did.

     About 9,000 years after the formation of the colony, Omiya Hachiman Shrine was founded in 1063.

     When the Imperial Court fought against the Abe Clan in Mutsu Province from 1051 to 1063, the Former Nine Years' War or the Early Nine Years' War, Minamoto Yoriyoshi (988-1075) was dispatched to the province.  When he was crossing today's Zentsuji River, a strange long white cloud trailed.  His soldiers were frightened and horrified with it, but he used tact to change the pinch to an opportunity, claiming the cloud to be a white banner, the Minamoto Clan's banner, which God Usa-Hachiman brought there for Yoriyoshi and his soldiers.  On his way back from his victory, he enshrined God Usa-Hachiman on the river with a rock as a deity, which is enshrined in Omiya Shrine's main hall even today.

     Samurai's days came, and itabi were built in the precincts.  One of them dates back to 1357 and another to 1363.

     In 1429, Omiya-ji Temple was founded as the shrine temple.

     In the 1560's, Nagao Kagetora (1530-1578) invaded the Kanto Region from Echigo Province to solve his domestic starvation.  Omiya Hachiman Shrine was reduced to ashes in battle.  Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) supported the shrine to revive after he moved to the Kanto Region in 1590.  As he prided himself on being a orthodox successor of the Minamoto Clan, he loved Minamoto-related places.

The Site of Omiya-ji Temple

Address: 1 Chome-15 Omiya, Suginami City, Tokyo 168-0061

Omiya Hachiman Shrine

Address: 2 Chome-3-1 Omiya, Suginami City, Tokyo 168-0061

Phone: 03-3311-0105