Virtual Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Saimyo-ji Temple

 

     Saimyo-ji Temple was founded by Ki Arimaro sometime between 729 and 749.  The Ki Clan served the Imperial Court as a military family from prehistoric times.

     As Fujiwara Yasunori, a competent governor at the time, exclaimed about robbery, “Most leaders are not local registered people, but dropouts (from the central hierarchic center in the capital).  Some are young members of good families who have pursued means of support.  Some others are officers’ valets who have married local women.  They have made the remote provinces their hometowns.”  Those young members and valets who belonged to Tomo, Ki, and Tachibana Clans must have had a hard time finding a new job.  Even if they didn't commit robbery, they "pursued means of support" even in eastern remote provinces, and Ki Arimaro was one of those who made an honest and respectable living in Haga County, Shimotsuke Province.  He even supported founding Saimyo-ji Temple sometime between 729 and 749, when the imperial government was busy sending their troops to Mutsu Province.

     In December, 713, Nitori County was established in Mutsu Province.  

     On May 30th, 715, 1,000 families immigrated from Sagami, Kazusa, Hitachi, Kozuke, Musashi, and Shimotsuke Provinces in the Kanto Region to Mutsu Province.

     The rapid development of Mutsu Province seems to have caused a backlash from indigenous people.  On September 28th, 720, Kamitsuke Hirohito (?-720), the Director General of Mutsu Province, was killed by the indigenous people.  The Imperial Court promptly dispatched Tajihi Agatamori (668-737) as a general and Shimotsuke Iwashiro as a vice-general to suppress the rebellion in Mutsu Province.  The outcome of their battles were unrecorded, but they returned on Aprl 9th, 721.

     On March 25th, 724, the indigenous people along the coast of Mutsu Province rebelled against the Imperial Court, killing Saeki Koyamaro (?-724).  On April 7th, the Imperial Court dispatched Fujiwara Umakai (694-737) as a general and Takahashi Yasumaro as a vice-general.  They suppressed the rebellion and returned on November 29th.

     Arimoto might have attended both the suppression armies or just the second one.  He settled along Kokai River, which used to run into Katori Sea and which is one of the longest branch rivers of the Tone River.  Kashima and Katori Shrines were founded along the Katori Sea.  Kashima Shrine was officially considered and actually worked as the gateway to invade the Tohoku Region, the northeastern part of Honshu, which was later called Mutsu Province, or to subdue and rule Emishi, who were not subject to the Imperial central government.  Military supplies were sent to the central part of Mutsu Province by sea.

     Katori Shrine used to be the gateway to the Kanto Plain, and governed the water transportation on Katori Sea. Kokai River used to be a waterway from the Katori Sea.  Military supplies were unloaded at its riverside and were sent to the southern part of Mutsu Province from there by land.  Arimoto presumably married a daughter of a local powerful family near the junction between Kokai River and the overland route.

     Ina Tadatsugu (1550-1610) and his son, Tadaharu (1606-1653), changed the watercourse of Kokai River and the other rivers around it, and the area doesn't look like what it used to be like.  To save Edo from floods, Tadaharu first dammed up the Aino River, a bypass river of the Old Tone River, in 1594, to keep the water of the Old Tone River away from Edo.  In 1621, he finished digging a canal to make the Old Tone River flow into the Old Watarase River for the same purpose, and the lower stream of the Old Tone River became the Sumida River.  He also started separating the Kinu and Kokai Rivers in their middle streams.  In 1629, he dammed the Ara River and made its water flow into the Iruma River.  The New Kinu River started running in the same year.  In 1630, the New Kokai River started running.

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