Virtual Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #32 Kiyomizu-dera Temple

 

     First, Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha was enshrined in a hermitage in Isumi sometime between 782 and 806.  Then, Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja was enshrined in 807, supported by the Imperial Army.

     The Japanese Archipelago has 34,600 kilometers of shoreline, which is shorter than America’s 56,700 kilometers but longer than Brazil’s 5,760 kilometers.  The islands are washed by the Black and Tsushima Currents from the south and by the Kuril Current from the north.

     The Black Current starts off Philippines, flows northward between the Formosa Island and the Ryukyu Islands, and, turning northeastward,  passes between the Ryukyu Islands and the Kyushu Island toward the south coasts of the Shikoku and Honshu Islands, transporting warm, tropical water.  The current brings not only tropical water but also fish, corals, seeds of tropical plants such as coconuts, blocks of dead aromatic trees, and even culturally, sometimes even militarily, advanced alien people.

     Ugaya (?-?), whose ancestors had come from somewhere else which got called Takamagahara later, was ruling Hyuga Province in the eastern coast of Kyushu Island.  He had been abandoned by his mother in his infancy, and raised by his aunt, his mother’s younger sister.  When he came of age, he married the aunt, and had 4 sons, Itsue, Inahi, Mikenu, and Sano.

     Inahi drowned himself in the sea to see his mother.  Mikenu left eastward, that is, to the sea, for the land of the dead.  Itsuse left northward with his youngest brother, Sano.  The reason for the family breakdown is unknown and unknowable now.

     Itsuse first arrived at Usa in Buzen Province, and stayed at another place int the province for a year.  He moved on eastward along the Seto Inland sea to Aki Province, and stayed there for 7 years.  And then to Kibi Province, and stayed there for 3 to 8 years.  He finally reached the eastern end of the Seto Inland sea only to be faced by Nagasune, who was hostile against him.  Itsuse was shot, flew, got to O Port in Ki Province, and died there.  He was buried in Mt. Kama near the port.

     Itsuse’s younger brother, Sano, continued their eastward quest, and arrived at Kumano in the province.  Tempted by a local tribe, who had the token of a crow with 3 legs, he went upstream along Totsu river, crossed Yoshino River, beat his way through the bush, and reached Uda in Yamato Province.

     The 3-legged-crow tribe helped Sano rival other local tribes there, and successfully split one tribe.  Sano’s men committed an underhanded murder of another local tribe.  Sano also maneuvered pork-barrel politics against other tribes, and established his ruling in Iware.  He was later called Iware, related to his domain name.  Until the end of World War II, the series of events was widely believed in Japan to have taken place more than 2 millennia before.

     Sano’s offspring eventually unified Yamato Province, and formed the Royal Family.  They even further continued the brothers’ eastward quest.  After Kumano, they reached Ise.  They built their advanced base at the southern end of the Ise Plains, Ise Shrine.  Next, they invaded Nobi Plains, and built another advanced base at the mouth of a river in Owari Prefecture, Atsuta Shrine.  They moved further east, got to an inland sea at the eastern end of the Kanto Plains, and built another advanced base at the southern shore of the sea, Katori Shrine.  Across the inland sea, at the northern shore, they also prepared another advanced logistics base, Kashima Shrine, to invade Northern Japan. 

     The north-easternmost tip of the Boso Peninsula is Cape Inubo.  The Black Japan Current, which runs along the Japanese Archipelago from the south, departs the islands east toward U.S.A. off the cape, where the Kurile Current, which runs from the north, meets the Black Japan Current.  Navigation methods and needed skills might have been quite different beyond the junction of the two sea currents.  As you have seen, Kumano Pirates sometimes exported some of their human resources and affected other sea people in other parts of Japan.  But Cape Inubo was the dividing line for them.

     Just to the north of Cape Inubo, there used to be an orifice of a big inland sea, Katori Sea.  On the peninsula between Katori Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Kashima Shrine was located.  On the southern coast of Katori Sea, there stood Katori Shrine.

Kashima Shrine was officially considered and actually worked as the gateway for the ancient Yamato central government to intrude into the north-eastern part of Japan, which would be later called Mutsu Province, or to subdue and rule Emishi, who were not subject to the imperial central government yet.

     Katori Shrine used to be the gateway to the Kanto Plain, and governed the water transportation on Katori Sea and along the rivers in the Kanto Region.

The Royal Family didn't like indirect rule, but preferred to drive wedges by gaining land and people under their direct control.

     The Ijimi Family was a powerful local family in the central part of the Boso Peninsula.  The family and their territory were annexed by the Imperial Court in the 5th century.  Part of the territory was offered to Empress Yamada by Ijimi Wakugo in 534.  Of course, Yamada couldn't go to Ijimi by herself, and dispatched some members of her parents' family, Kasugabe, to the land.

     Kiyomizu-dera Temple might have functioned as a house of worship for those from the central part of Japan and as a cultural hegemon and authority against the local people.

Address: 1270 Misakichokamone, Isumi, Chiba 299-4624

Phone: 0470-87-3360